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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26269204">Living Freely</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/VigoGrimborne/pseuds/VigoGrimborne'>VigoGrimborne</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>'Living' [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, Adventure, Sequel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:21:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>100,095</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26269204</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/VigoGrimborne/pseuds/VigoGrimborne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lightning scars, wings twice broken and healed. A refugee fleeing Skrill from places unknown brings mysteries, an inability to answer them, and danger for any who might try to save him from the cruel, cold, shocking embrace of his captors. But some of the inhabitants of the Isle of Night try anyway, unaware of what, exactly, they are dealing with. Third book in the 'Living' series.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>'Living' [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781299</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p>
<p>Flight was pain.</p>
<p>Every downthrust of his wings was wrong, every upward pull awkward, every turn agonizing. The joints in his wings throbbed fiercely with every waking moment, and on the rare occasion he could sleep, his dreams were addled by the continued discomfort.</p>
<p>Or maybe his dreams were addled by the stress of fleeing an inescapable, sadistic enemy every waking moment. Nightmares were a constant fact of his life, but they had not been so thoroughly disturbing before-</p>
<p>A lazy strike of lightning crackled in the bright sky to his left, and he tortured himself by dipping to the right. It was an incompetent, failed, slow movement, barely enough to dodge anything at all, and had the shot been aimed at him, he would have been struck.</p>
<p>His body quivered in the air, and he had a hard time convincing himself that the next agonizing flap, the next near miss, was worth it.</p>
<p>As always, during these last few weeks when his motivation began to fade, he remembered how he had reached this point. They were playing with him <em>now,</em> but it had not begun as a sadistic game. It had begun well, and he <em>could </em>still escape.</p>
<p>Even if that meant suffering, fleeing, letting them think they were winning, and seeking a victory he knew was not possible.</p>
<p>He suddenly realized that he had dropped lower while he deliberated, a more effective evasive maneuver than any intentional one he had made in the last few days, and throwing his wings out to resume his flight was torture, but he did it anyway.</p>
<p>There was a dark storm coming up in front of him, a mass of clouds and rain over land of some sort. He drew near to the edge of it all, dark-tinted clouds looming in his vision, and plunged into them without a second thought, though he more than suspected that his pursuers would use this storm to end the chase. It was the first storm they had come across in the long hunt, and they had begun herding him to it the moment they noticed its existence.</p>
<p>This chase was going to end in some way. He could not continue on as he had, not forever, and however much the Skrill might be willing to let him flee, to let him hope, they were not going to give up. They never gave up, it wasn't their nature, and while these <em>particular </em>Skrill were-</p>
<p>A loud blast of thunder in the distance made him jolt. He wasn't used to <em>hearing </em>lightning coming. That was not how Skrill worked, and he had not seen or felt a storm in years. He flapped his imperfect wings harder, flew higher, and forced himself to dive into the depths of the storm, the place where they would have an even more overwhelming advantage.</p>
<p>His only advantage was that he knew his pursuers, knew them well, and he knew what they needed, what they wanted. How those two things did not match up, how that twisted them. The twisting was the only reason he had not been struck dead long, long ago.</p>
<p>He flew into a draft of warm air, and his body convulsed. It had been so long since he felt warm, and being on the run had not given him any reprieve. The world was cold, and he often slept in or near bodies of water, for safety.</p>
<p>The draft of warm air was being forced down by the turbulent winds, and he followed it. Lightning was beginning to flicker without thunder, the Skrill had entered the storm, the chase was almost over…</p>
<p>A scattered web of lightning flashed in the sky far above him, and the constant light illuminated an island below. There were mountains and unnatural structures, devoid of movement aside from the illusions created by constantly moving sources of light.</p>
<p>He recognized the structures, though it had been a long time. Humans lived here, or had once lived here.</p>
<p>He had no hope to spare for them, needing every bit of it for himself, but he would still prefer they not be destroyed by the Skrill. He brought death and destruction with him, but it was all focused on him.</p>
<p>Another scatter of lightning flashed below him, and he was driven up, out of the warm air current. Each strike came leisurely, for all that a bolt of lightning was instant no matter what the mood of the creator. The massive web of interlocking strikes continued above, and he saw the work of both Skrill in that.</p>
<p>Time passed, measured only in his grunts of pain at every new maneuver, and his pounding heart. There was no movement below, even as the storm raged, and he knew there would be no intervention.</p>
<p>There was no way out. Lightning hounded him, and he had flown right into their native element. If these were normal Skrill, untwisted, they would have killed him in an instant, and considered that a victory.</p>
<p>But they were not normal, and he did not fear death. They were perpetually starving for a thrill, ravenous to seek his life, but they needed him alive. Death would be a failure for them, but as tempting as it was to accept it just to spite them, it was still a defeat he could not accept. He was not quite ready for the end.</p>
<p>Flight was pain, but it was still life, and more than he'd had in years. He wasn't going to give it up before he was forced to. His body was flagging, inefficient and pained, and that end would come soon enough no matter what he wanted.</p>
<p>He noticed the moment the flashes from above stopped. His heart fluttered like a weak fledgling, and he whirled in the air in an excruciating maneuver that had him whining to himself-</p>
<p>His eyes caught the telltale flickers of a Skrill falling out of the sky, and the hope in his chest bloomed a little more. It was not possible, but it was happening.</p>
<p>The sight brought strength to his wings, and he flew toward one of the mountains, hoping to hide and shelter somewhere. Maybe the remaining Skrill would be struck down or-</p>
<p>A tiny object bloomed in front of him, appearing from nowhere and unraveling into a mesh, and he was ensnared in an instant, his body tangled with his pained wings stuck in useless positions against his sides.</p>
<p>The fall was a familiar one, he had fallen often enough to know the feeling, but the inability to pull himself out of it was new. He barely had time to recognize that this was probably the end he had sought, not even enough to regret everything that had led to this point-</p>
<p>O-O-O</p>
<p>He woke to the rush of waves, a rocking sensation, nausea, and warmth greater than he had felt in years. If it weren't for the nausea, he would have let himself fall back asleep there and then.</p>
<p>But the churning in his stomach could not be denied, and he forced his heavy eyes open long enough to find the lowest point in the cave and heave out the scant contents of his stomach. The spot he had chosen even had a pile of dried plucked grass, a little piece of a forest in this otherwise unnatural place. Something fell off his back as he turned away from that spot, but he didn't have the presence of mind to think about that.</p>
<p>His eyes were blurry, and the warmth all around him, in the air and seeping into his bones, tempted him to sleep. But self-preservation demanded he at least understand why he was not in a Skrill's talons, being carried back to the place he had escaped.</p>
<p>He found himself in a narrow but long cave made of wood, one that rocked rhythmically. It was dark, and the air was still, though there was a chill breeze coming in from somewhere, not enough to make him cold, but enough to renew what would otherwise be a stuffy, uncomfortable atmosphere.</p>
<p>On the ground next to him was a pile of unrecognizable materials, and all around the walls of the wooden cave more strange things were piled, but he was alone, judging by the scent of humans – all males – on every surface. Some of the walls had patches of different textures, and a part of the ceiling had a circular marking on it, but short of using his fire, he had no idea how to leave, or what he would find outside.</p>
<p>He also had absolutely no desire to correct that lack of knowledge. The warmth and lack of danger were far too tempting to spoil, and he had spent long enough in small, confined spaces that he considered this one luxurious.</p>
<p>He crawled away from his bile, lay atop the tangled mess of odd-smelling, soft material, and let himself drift back into slumber, unconcerned with the many, many unanswered questions he had.</p>
<p>O-O-O</p>
<p>A commotion roused him from his sleep, and he opened his eyes to find a small, decidedly human face staring back at him.</p>
<p>The human pulled back, chittering like a squirrel and honking like a goose as his kind often did, and draped one of the materials he had found over him, covering his scales and back. He noticed that the smell of his bile from earlier was gone, replaced with the smell of fish… and with the scent of the sea. There was a hole in the ceiling, and he could see a partly cloudy sky outside.</p>
<p>Not that he was enough of a fool to venture out into the open. He tucked his chin down on top of the edge of the warm, heat-trapping extra skin he had been granted and made no move to stand. His new captors would get no resistance from him; this sort of privilege was enough to keep him here forever of his own will, if only they would not force him back out into the sky to be hunted down once more.</p>
<p>O-O-O</p>
<p>Life with his new captors settled into a pattern that he was hard-pressed to see as captivity, even in his most pessimistic moments. They brought food and water, regularly removed his waste, and always left a hole in the ceiling when it was nice out, leaving him a path out if he wanted it. The world rocked, and he suspected that he was inside a floating chunk of wood like the ones he had seen long ago. He never left the chamber he had woken up in, not even to stand in the open air for a moment.</p>
<p>Most of his time was spent sleeping, causing the days and nights to pass quickly. When not sleeping, he was daydreaming, or panting in fear and trying to forget the nightmares, or fighting off waves of crippling guilt.</p>
<p>It was a slow, boring life, even by comparison to what he had endured before the long chase, but he accepted it with ease. It kept him away from the sky, kept him out of the reach of the Skrill. No Skrill would ever think to check a random human vessel, and he had flown for weeks to get this far away, so the humans would not bring him anywhere near where he had fled.</p>
<p>Then, one day, while some humans were chittering and honking above, he heard a voice of another dragon in his mind. Judging by the timber of the mental voice, it was a young male, and unlike the Skrill, it wasn't dripping with hatred and promising death. He could not help but listen, though the male above in the open was not speaking to him at all, and he could not hear the other half of the conversation.</p>
<p>'What brings you all the way out here?' the male asked. 'Is there trouble in your part of the world?'</p>
<p>There was a pause, then another human chittered back at him.</p>
<p>'You what?' the male asked.</p>
<p>Another pause ensured, this one much longer. He heard humans chattering above, but they were always talking to each other. One of them seemed to consistently interrupt the dragon whose voice he heard in his mind, but that never seemed to interrupt either of them.</p>
<p>'Okay, yeah, about that,' the male said. 'We're not missing any Night Furies. Not a one. Everybody is here. So while it's great that you brought him here, I have no idea who he is. You're telling me he sat in the cargo hold the <em>whole way here</em> without once even setting foot outside?'</p>
<p>One of the humans chittered back louder than before, confusion present in its tone. He didn't know what it was saying, they spoke little around him and he slept most of the time anyway.</p>
<p>'It's probably better I find out what's going on from him directly,' the male offered. 'Down here?'</p>
<p>He tensed as he realized that this male was talking about <em>him.</em> He didn't have any time to consider what it all meant in that new context, a presence was already casting a small shadow over the opening in the ceiling-</p>
<p>He shook off the false hides draped over his body and curled up, trembling. This warmth and calm was so nice with his most lenient captors yet. He did not want to be freed. This male was no Skrill, he hadn't heard a single charged growl, but he was <em>someone</em>, and that could mean the hunt would start again.</p>
<p>But the young male dragon did not descend. Instead, a human wearing dark scales on his usual dead hides slowly lowered himself into the wooden cave. The creature seemed unassuming and non-threatening.</p>
<p>The human turned to him, its green eyes reflecting the light from above. As before, its nasal chattering rattled out alongside the dragon's mental voice, and beyond all explanation, it seemed to come from the same position. 'So, what's your story?'</p>
<p>He was not struck dumb by surprise, that was not why he did not answer, though he was immensely surprised and confused. The real reason for him not speaking was simpler, and far more deeply rooted. He shook his head in wordless denial.</p>
<p>'I know you <em>can </em>talk, friend,' the dragon's voice declared from the human's body. The human was also spewing out their usual assortment of noises, as if it was related, connected somehow. 'And I know you hear me. I mean absolutely no harm.' He spread his puny little limbs wide, as if to emphasize his declaration.</p>
<p>Another shake of the head, more vehement, was all the human with a dragon's voice got in return. It was not a question of <em>wanting </em>to speak, though it had been in the beginning. Speaking always hurt, and he did not want to hurt. Speaking had caused all of his worst problems and mistakes in the distant past, and he had learned that it was better to live without it. In fact, it had been so long since he had endured the pain of speaking that he wasn't sure that he could if he wanted to, which he certainly did not.</p>
<p>'Okay,' the young male said kindly, 'You don't have to speak. Just let me know you <em>do </em>hear me.'</p>
<p>That he could do, so he did, nodding his head rapidly. Denying his captors their requests also led to hurt. It was always better to please them.</p>
<p>'Good, we're getting somewhere,' the male said. 'You know you're totally free to leave, right? They were never keeping you in this hold, and they say you can fly.'</p>
<p>He nodded again. He understood that, he just did not want to go anywhere. This was the best he had experienced in a long time, and it kept him from the Skrill, who would never stop hunting.</p>
<p>'Honestly, I have no clue what's going on with you,' the male admitted, seemingly at a loss. 'Do you know where you are, or why they brought you here?'</p>
<p>He shook his head.</p>
<p>'Do you know why they did not treat you like most humans treat all dragons they shoot down?' the young male pressed, now even more confused.</p>
<p>He thought about it for a moment, but his answer ended up being yet another wordless denial.</p>
<p>'So you were <em>shot down</em>, put in a ship, told you could leave but didn't have to, with absolutely no idea what was going on or where you were going, and you chose to stay there and not seek out answers,' the young male summarized. 'And you can't tell me anything.'</p>
<p>He was glad that all of that had been understood. The sooner this strange human understood and left, the sooner he could go back to the boring, safe life he had led in this wooden cave.</p>
<p>'Where do I even start?' the human asked. 'I guess getting Eldurhjarta to check you out would be the first thing. Come on up, we can walk to her if you don't want to fly.'</p>
<p>He replied with a shake of his head and a plaintive whine. He didn't want to go anywhere. It wasn't safe outside.</p>
<p>'Look, you have to at least leave this ship,' the young male reasoned. 'They brought you here because they felt bad for shooting you down and thought you were one of us, but they can't keep you in their ship forever. Nobody is going to hurt you… Or ask too many questions, if you don't want to answer. Just let us get you somewhere you <em>can </em>stay as long as you want.'</p>
<p>He didn't want to go, not at all, but he knew that refusing his captor's instructions always led to more pain than it was worth. If his kind human captors were done with him, there was nothing he could do about it. He rose, shook off the hides that had kept him warmer than necessary, and nodded to the exit.</p>
<p>'Okay, sure,' the young male muttered, turning and climbing out, its two clunky hind paws thumping down on ridges of wood made for the purpose.</p>
<p>The light of the noon sun was blinding, and he kept his eyes partially closed as he followed the human out onto the top of the wooden cave. The human led him to the side, and then down a ramp, and soon he felt sand under his paws.</p>
<p>Being out under the open sky was more than mildly upsetting, and he forced his eyes open to search the blinding skies for signs of a thunderstorm, of his doom coming to him once more now that he had left the safety of his human captors.</p>
<p>Nothing. Aside from a few puffy white clouds, the sky was a clear, bright blue.</p>
<p>'Welcome to the Isle of Night, I guess,' the human said. 'My name is Svarturflugmaður. What do you want to be called?'</p>
<p>He looked away from the skies, back toward the island itself, and was treated to a sight even more terrifying than the open air. Two Night Furies flew above a mountain and a lush, tangled forest, totally out in the open.</p>
<p>'Yeah, there are a lot of us around here,' Svarturflugmaður said, following his gaze but not understanding or even noticing his silent horror. 'We've got four entire families. This is a safe place, whatever else has happened to you.'</p>
<p>He wanted to cry out in fear, to urge them to disperse, to fly out and drive those two fellow Night Furies down into the forest, at the very least… But it would do nothing. He himself had not understood the true danger until it was far too late, despite being warned. And maybe he was wrong.</p>
<p>Torn between hoping for peace and dreading destruction, he turned to the easier question. His name.</p>
<p>He had one, it was not even a complex one, and he could maybe convey it if he was clever. His new captor, Svarturflugmaður, wanted it, which was confusing because speaking was punished, but his captor wanted him to speak, and denying his captor's wishes was punished… And he didn't think he <em>could </em>speak if he wanted to.</p>
<p>Instead of answering, he walked to the treeline, only a short distance away, and huddled in the shade.</p>
<p>'That can wait,' Svarturflugmaður said, sounding concerned. 'Let's get you to Eldurhjarta.'</p>
<p>He felt like screeching in horror, now seeing that name for what it was, probably yet another Fury. Four families, probably young ones, children, mates, friends… All here, all in the open, all oblivious.</p>
<p>He quaked with fear as he slinked after the human deeper into the forest, for once fearing for someone besides himself or his son. These people had no idea just how horribly wrong their lives could go at any instant, with the arrival of the next storm or with random bad luck.</p>
<p>So wrong, so very, very wrong… he thought of his name and how it was just as wrong, had been proven wrong by the Skrill and their master and all that had happened.</p>
<p>Sterkureinn knew his name meant 'Strong one,' but he had not felt strong in a very, very long time. That same lack of strength led him now to doubt, to hope, to follow meekly and keep the silence he no longer knew how to break.</p>
<p>Maybe he was wrong. He was weak, but this group, these families, this <em>pack </em>might be strong. Maybe he would be safe. But it certainly did not feel like it, and if he was indeed safe, he would only feel worse about it.</p>
<p>After all, he had left his son behind and did not intend to go back for him, no matter how many allies or powers he had arrayed on his side. He was weak, not strong, and he knew it all too well. Too weak to go back, too weak to speak up and let these people know how wrong they were to fly openly, too weak to stand in the open without fear.</p>
<p>Too weak to flee and never look back on this miraculous place, even though he knew he was hunted and would inevitably bring destruction upon these people too if he stayed.</p>
<p>Maybe.</p>
<p>O-O-O</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <strong>Author's Note</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>: Thus begins the third book in this series, in a manner parallel to the last (yes, that's intentional, and no, the stories are not going to follow anywhere near the same paths past this surprisingly similar opening). I feel it may be prudent to note a few things:</strong>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>This story will update once every two weeks for the time being, as I didn't manage to build up quite enough of a backlog to feel comfortable with a weekly schedule. That may change in the future, or it might not. No promises there, except for the same promise I always give; come what may, this story will be finished.</strong>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>On another note, as everyone has undoubtedly noticed by now, I've swapped to a different kind of scene break. I'm not going to make this a retroactive change (unless I get bored and want a half-dozen mindless hours of combing through and updating every single chapter 3 times), but it's a necessary one going forward; the normal line breaks used in the past two books don't play well with… well, anything really. I've learned the hard way that using text line breaks just works better from the technical side of things, as well as allowing for a little more customization on my part.</strong>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>Also, as an aside to a few particular readers. I </strong>
  <em>
    <strong>really </strong>
  </em>
  <strong>rewrote this whole thing, plot included, so any guarantees I might have made about it in the past, or any cryptic hints (again, you know who you are) may no longer apply. It doesn't cover the same time span, main characters have been shuffled, a pairing has been removed from existence, the fates of several characters were entirely reworked, some deaths were added and some were averted, a couple of maimings were avoided… Obviously, none of that means anything, because nobody has seen the first draft, but I'm making a point. Everything changed, aside from me using the same general themes and ideas, the things that made this a story worth telling in the first place.</strong>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>Following from a few of the things I just mentioned above, I feel it might be prudent to say here that this story is a little darker than the last one (as if this prologue wasn't enough to indicate that, though I'd caution you against immediately believing Sterkureinn's opinions on anything over what we've seen previously, given he's the furthest thing from an impartial source of information). Not exceeding a T rating, certainly not going into the graphic or soul-crushing detail of </strong>
  <em>
    <strong>Usurpation of the Darkness</strong>
  </em>
  <strong> or probably even </strong>
  <em>
    <strong>When Nothing Remains</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>, but a noted increase. The premise kind of requires it in order to not feel irreverently lighthearted and unrealistic, and I've said too much…</strong>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>Anyway, here it goes. </strong>
  <em>
    <strong>Living Freely </strong>
  </em>
  <strong>has begun. As always, predictions as to what comes next are entirely welcome, and I'm sure </strong>
  <em>
    <strong>some </strong>
  </em>
  <strong>of you will make leaps of intuition and guess far too much from this chapter alone. I welcome that, and it's theoretically possible to predict multiple major new elements of this story from this chapter alone.</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>Maour was feeling a strong sense of deja vu. He didn't <em>remember </em>ever walking a badly traumatized, heavily scarred Night Fury through the woods at night, but it felt familiar. The obvious similarity made no sense upon closer inspection; Togi might count as traumatized and heavily scarred, but they had always met up without travelling together, and Togi was not the type to do anything meekly. The two couldn't have been less alike.</p><p>The Night Fury skulking behind Maour, hugging the trees and shadows, was as subdued as most Myrkurs were rebellious, and he had no clue why that was, besides the obvious guesses provoked by the many scars. It didn't help that the one thing this Fury wouldn't do was speak, though he did everything else asked of him without the slightest complaint.</p><p>Across the stretch of forest between himself and Toothless, through a mental link that bridged their senses, Maour heard Toothless speaking to thin air knowing that his rider was listening through his ears. 'I told mom, she went to alert the Eldurs, Von is going to the Nótts, and I am stuck telling the Myrkurs,' Toothless sighed. 'At least this time we do not have to worry about the guard assaulting the rescued prisoner.'</p><p>"What?" Maour murmured, speaking softly. He had not told their mysterious guest about Toothless, and didn't intend to. Heather was always so adamant about keeping things quiet until one knew exactly what was going on, just in case, and he wanted to be able to say that he had played it smart when she inevitably asked for all the details. If she wasn't out on patrol with Einfari, she would probably have come straight to him upon hearing the news.</p><p>'You know, Einfari and Heather?' Toothless mentally snorted. 'This reminds me of then, but with less fighting and a less dramatic rescue. Aldir and his tribe got all the fun this time around, and hopefully all the attention. We don't need another war.'</p><p>"I was <em>wondering </em>why this felt familiar," Maour murmured. That was it; this was all a lot like how Heather had come to the Isle, an escapee from a powerful captor. Thankfully, as Toothless had pointed out, this case didn't put a target on their backs, or if it did, said target was already there anyway.</p><p>'Where is he?' Toothless asked, accessing Maour's sense of sight. He saw nothing, of course, just the dense foliage Maour was walking through.</p><p>Maour glanced over his shoulder in answer. Their mystery guest was still following silently, his head down and his tail all but dragging on the ground. He was a gruesome sight, covered in spidery grey scars, and his demeanor made it all seem worse, more serious, than it probably was. He walked like he was broken, not even looking up at Maour.</p><p>'I am telling the Nótts that you let an unknown dragon walk behind you,' Toothless said impishly. 'You deserve to be chewed out for that.'</p><p>"You're just mad Skarpur got on your tail for sleeping on the beach in broad daylight," Maour chuckled, ignoring the threat, though it was a valid one. Heather, Togi, or any of the Nótts would chastise him for taking what they might view as a risk.</p><p>They weren't here, and didn't feel the submissiveness practically radiating off of the Night Fury he was turning his back on. They also didn't know that he had been picking harder paths through the forest in case he needed to flee a sudden attack, or that he had a bit of extra protection on his back for entirely unrelated reasons… But those weren't good enough excuses to save him if Toothless followed through.</p><p>'We have patrols, why do I have to be on guard when I am not on patrol?' Toothless asked rhetorically. 'It is not as if a ship can approach the Isle without us noticing, and nowadays it is no big secret who lives here.'</p><p>"It's just good security," Maour quipped. The mountain came into view through the foliage as he neared the edge of the forest, with the entrance to the Eldur family caverns ahead. He hoped Cloey had let them know about the incoming patient by now.</p><p>A questioning grunt from behind him caught his attention, and he looked back to see the mystery Fury looking up meekly.</p><p>"Just talking to myself," he said neutrally, slightly creeped out by the large, scarred male's continued attitude toward him and apparently the rest of the world. To hide in the depths of a ship for two whole months without ever even stepping out into open air, even when it was literally within sight, just felt <em>wrong</em>. He would never be willing or able to do that, and he didn't have wings like dragons did.</p><p>Not real wings, anyway. The slim new prototype on his back and down his sides was his latest step toward blurring the line on that front. He fiddled with the small leather loops hanging out from his hips and idly wondered whether they could be done away with. They weren't big, just large enough to slip his hands into, but they did sort of ruin his sleek, aerodynamic profile.</p><p>A loud screeching sound jolted him out of his thoughts, and he reflexively covered his ears. It continued for a long moment, lingering at just the right tones to bother every dragon within earshot, and then abruptly stopped.</p><p>Maour knew what it was; everyone on the island did. The twins had gotten their hands on a set of novelty horns, much to <em>everyone </em>else's dismay. Hopefully, the abrupt end meant someone had caught them and broken the one they were using.</p><p>He looked over his shoulder and saw that the silent Night Fury was unaffected by the noise. It almost looked as if he hadn't heard it at all…</p><p>A thought occurred to Maour, and as he continued looking over his shoulder, he snapped his fingers, taking care to do so out of the Night Fury's line of sight.</p><p>A subtle twitch of the dragon's ears disproved his half-baked theory. This newcomer was <em>not </em>deaf. He was just apathetic to the point where strange, downright discomforting sounds on an unfamiliar island weren't enough to bother him.</p><p>Maour was glad to catch sight of the Eldur cave entrance up ahead; he was feeling out of his depth with this particular mystery. He led the orange-eyed Night Fury right up to the entrance and stopped there.</p><p>"Anyone home?" he called out. Now that Vartha was old enough, it was no longer a possibly lethal mistake to trespass on Eldur territory, but he would rather be polite. He was a little surprised Eldurhjarta wasn't waiting at the entrance-</p><p>Said Night Fury barreled out of the cave, slipping around the last turn with a grunt, and leaped out into the open, startling him. 'Right here!' she barked. 'Where is the patient?'</p><p>"Right here," Maour dryly replied, gesturing behind himself, where the other Night Fury waited patiently.</p><p>I see.' Eldurhjarta brushed past him, her eyes going wide as she took in the male Night Fury's bedraggled, submissive appearance. 'Okay. Name?'</p><p>The male nodded, but said nothing.</p><p>Eldurhjarta walked closer, her eyes narrowing. 'Has he been mute this whole time?' she asked.</p><p>"Yes," Maour answered. "Did Toothless tell you how he got here?"</p><p>'Our human allies shot him down during a Skrill attack and brought him by ship, yes,' Eldurhjarta said absently, her eyes on her patient. 'Yes and no questions, then. Lift your head, I want to see your throat.' The patient complied with a worried whine.</p><p>"Does that matter, with how you guys speak?" Maour asked curiously.</p><p>'Not in the same ways as for humans, but I am not <em>just </em>looking for that,' Eldurhjarta rumbled. She leaned in and put a paw on the male's chest. 'Inhale.'</p><p>The male breathed in and held it. His chest twitched as Eldurhjarta pushed forward, but did not give. 'Good,' she murmured. 'Out. Maour, you can go if you want. This is going to take a while, and I will want him to stay overnight, to observe his sleep patterns. With this many lightning scars, I am worried about his heart.'</p><p>"He made it just fine for the months it took to get here," Maour offered.</p><p>Eldurhjarta turned around long enough to cast him an unimpressed look. 'He is in my care now. I will not just <em>assume </em>it is fine. Especially not when he is covered in scars, cannot speak for some reason, and has obviously had his wings broken <em>twice</em>, the first time badly set to top it all off!'</p><p>"Twice?" Maour <em>had </em>noticed the distinctive scar bands at the midsection of both wings, but he hadn't come to that conclusion.</p><p>'Twice, and if he were a human, he would be crippled for life,' she replied. She walked around to the male's hindquarters and put both paws on his back. 'Breath in again, and hold it,' she ordered. 'Luckily, we heal breaks far more quickly and thoroughly. As it is, he probably cannot fly without pain, because the second break did not heal quite right either.'</p><p>The male nodded, agreeing with her assessment even as he breathed in again. His demeanor had not changed, but Maour thought he might be a little more relaxed now. It was hard to tell.</p><p>"You know better than I do," Maour admitted. "Your family will host him?"</p><p>'Obviously,' Eldurhjarta snorted. 'I want him for observation, and then everyone else will have questions for him. Arrange the occasional visitor to give us breaks, and we won't have any problems with him staying.' She patted one of her paws on the male's back condescendingly. 'You will not give us any trouble.'</p><p>The male shook his head vehemently, showing more urgency than ever before, and Maour was both relieved and unsettled. He was once again glad the Eldurs were on top of this; <em>something </em>was twisted here, and he wouldn't have felt good leaving the dragon unattended or ignored. The Eldurs would provide healing <em>and </em>scrutiny, more so because Vartha would be around. They had it handled.</p><p>'Come back in a week,' Eldurhjarta suggested. 'By then, I will have a full understanding of what is going on here.' She flicked a wing to gesture at the male.</p><p>"Will do." He made to leave-</p><p>'And smash that stupid thing on your back,' she added scathingly. 'I saw your last test, and I am <em>not </em>going to be happy if I have to put you back together after a crash.'</p><p>"There was an equipment failure, and you'll be happy to know I was inspired to add additional safety precautions," he said, walking faster. This was not an argument he wanted to get into.</p><p>'Why were they not there in the first place?' Eldurhjarta called out as he ducked into the forest proper.</p><p>"Because I didn't think about landing," he muttered. It was good the Eldurs were going to be handling the mystery Aldir had passed on to them, because he was very much busy with his own projects.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless bounded through the forest, running as slowly as possibly. Each leap was an exaggerated motion intended to <em>look </em>meaningful while covering almost no ground, and he was not moving in a straight line, even taking into account the many trees forcing a winding path anyway. He made as close to no progress as he could manage without just standing still and waiting.</p><p>As he fled, he kept his ears open for sounds of pursuit. His two pursuers were not subtle, and they were not fast, either. He could tell how far away they were by how distant their unique noises were. Little burbling barks, like half-formed chirps but far too enthusiastic, followed in his wake. There were two sets of the odd noises, almost indistinguishable except for when they took slightly different paths toward him.</p><p>It was impossible to keep a wide, toothless grin off of his face as he listened to those ridiculously endearing noises closing in. He intentionally walked into a tree, reared back with a paw to his nose, and fell onto his back right next to a small rock that smelled of recent upheaval… and the twins' grubby hands. He had no clue why they had brought a rock into the forest near the Svartur cave entrance, but since his pursuers were fledglings now, he didn't have to worry about running into anyone outside the family, so he didn't care.</p><p>He lay there, his paws up in the air and his eyes half closed, and waited patiently. They weren't <em>fast</em>, in any sense of the word. Shaky on their paws and uncoordinated, they had a hard time going anywhere with speed.</p><p>A set of paws and tiny claws scrabbled against the far side of the rock. A moment later, there was another enthusiastic little bark, and a small black pair of ears came into view.</p><p>Meanwhile, the other source of endearing little chirps made his or her way around the side of the rock, shoving through the bush next to it with little tact and a lot of noise.</p><p>Both popped into view at roughly the same time. Fora's pale green eyes and black face came up with her ears, and Vern shoved through the last of the brush, his eyes closed as he used his head as a battering ram.</p><p>'Oh no!' Toothless exclaimed, waving his paws around to show just how helpless he was. 'I've been caught!'</p><p>His younger siblings leaped at him, plowing into his side and chest with wild abandon. Their small claws were sharp but bearable, and he let them latch on without complaint. They were letting out adorable squeaks and growls as they attempted to pin him down, one clamped onto his foreleg and another with a mouthful of his tail, so Toothless aided them in their task by hauling his limbs up and depositing them on his belly.</p><p>They were still developing their mental voice and on occasion got a few words out, but it would be a while before they were stringing them into coherent sentences or using them voluntarily. Three-year-olds didn't tend to do much talking, even if they were no longer hatchlings.</p><p>"But you know…" he trailed off, at the same time slowly ramping up a threatening rumble in his chest. Fora looked up, her paws vibrating atop him. Her eyes widened, and she backed away. Vern followed her lead, not quite understanding but still very much ready to trust his sister.</p><p>"I am not prey!" He slowly rolled onto his side, shook them off, and pounced, a paw to each of their tails. They both squealed, tried to flee in different directions, and rebounded, their small, dense bodies smacking together. The moment they were properly disoriented, he let go and leaped away, giving them a chance to regroup.</p><p>Fora rubbed her head on the ground, growling to herself, while Vern charged, waving his tail in the air and holding his wings out to make himself look bigger. Fora looked up and followed a heartbeat later, making a second small, fierce little bundle of claws and teeth headed his way.</p><p>Toothless dug deep for the courage to stand against such an adorable threat and batted at them with slow, grand swipes that <em>looked </em>mostly real. Not entirely; if he made it too convincing, they would whine and flee and think they had made him mad, because they trusted him without reservation and it would never even cross their minds that he might be in the wrong.</p><p>'You win!' He proclaimed, leaping up onto a tree. His claws sunk into the bark and the soft wood below, and it leaned under his weight. He hadn't picked the best tree, on second thought, so he leaped to another that was much thicker and stronger. His siblings followed on the ground and scrambled up, their small claws latching onto the bark without any trouble at all. They weren't quick, but they climbed as fast as they walked.</p><p>He leaped off again the moment they were high enough, then laughed to himself as they stopped climbing. Their large eyes widened, and they began to slowly, carefully try to climb back down. They couldn't even glide yet, so it was either that or falling-</p><p>The instant he realized that Vern's back paws were slipping, Toothless leaped forward into the trunk. Two chunks of bark bounced off of his back, and then a heavy fledgling slammed down. Fora barked and dropped intentionally, almost causing Toothless' legs to give out. That was going to leave a bruise.</p><p>His little siblings, not ones to let opportunities slip by them, immediately set to work exploiting their position on top of him. Vern gnawed at his ears, while Fora pricked his back with her claws, pulling and tugging at his scales in a way that would have been painful if she was much stronger.</p><p>He let himself collapse, giving them their victory. They were fun to play with… Though he would enjoy it even more once they were old enough to actually challenge him in some way. That was years away, though; they weren't going to be going on any real adventures for a long while yet. But when they did, it seemed likely they would be together, relying on each other like they always did.</p><p>Toothless didn't consider himself an expert on instinctively trusting people. He had grown up in a hellish landscape of hot rocks and yellow fog, and seen nobody but his mother for those first few years. He didn't really know what it was like to trust other people in the instinctive way hatchlings of his kind did. Cloey, yes, but nobody else, not like that.</p><p>And <em>nobody </em>knew what Fora and Vern had, growing up together. That trust extended to each other, without any age gap where one might assume authority. So far, all it seemed to mean was that they worked together no matter what was going on, but they were flying new skies with every day, going where nobody else in the pack had gone before, not even him and Maour. He had met Maour <em>well </em>after they both were young adults, and so their trust was not instinctive, it was learned.</p><p>He almost asked Maour about it; his brother probably had some interesting insight into all of this, being human and thus having an outsider's perspective of how Night Fury instincts affected them. But he wasn't contacting Maour for a reason; it was that day of the week, and his brother wouldn't take kindly to being interrupted or spied upon.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Maour walked into his open-air forge and workshop, and as always, the sight of his many projects filled him with anticipation. Even now, when he didn't plan to actually work on any of them.</p><p>"So, what's new this week?" Heather asked, trailing behind him. She lingered at the most obvious works in progress, looking but not touching. "This looks dangerous."</p><p>Maour glanced back at the serrated blade she was looking at, mentally placing it. "That's for cutting wood," he explained. "It's not a weapon, but yes, it's dangerous."</p><p>"You could make it one," Heather suggested. "Make some smaller blades, build something to shoot them out of a gauntlet. I'd like one of those for our sparring matches."</p><p>"That's one for the list," he said, liking the idea, if not the image of her firing it at him while they sparred. It was a little too unavoidably lethal for his tastes, good for killing or severely injuring and little else, but the concept was good, and promised to make an interesting challenge. More so if he could figure out an alternative projectile for it.</p><p>"That list?" Heather asked, pointing to the long parchment pinned up against the back of a free-standing table.</p><p>"No, that one has all the materials I need," he said. "Stuff I have to pick up next time Toothless and I go out to Mahelmetan." As well as a few items the Thorstons had bribed him to pick up for them, but he was supposed to be keeping that little fact a secret.</p><p>He pushed aside a rock and picked up the pile of parchment it was weighing down, shuffling through the various drawings and designs until he had the one he was looking for. "This list," he said, slapping it down on the bench and grabbing a charcoal pencil.</p><p>"That's a lot of stuff," Heather observed, leaning in to look over his shoulder as he added her idea to the end. "Fire blade, a new saddle with special leather… an automatic tailfin."</p><p>"It's outdated," Maour admitted. "I need a steady source of Monstrous Nightmare gel to find out whether or not the fire blade will work at all, and there aren't any around." He could feel Heather's breath on his shoulder and neck, and he didn't mind at all.</p><p>"Einfari and I haven't seen any around, either," Heather agreed. "But we don't explore like you two do sometimes."</p><p>"They seem to like living alone, which makes it harder," he said. "Want to see some of the things I <em>am </em>working on?"</p><p>"Will they be any different from last month?" Heather asked with a laugh, standing back as he moved to another bench.</p><p>"Totally, last month I was tweaking the flight suit." He looked over at her, his hands on the intricate metal gears of a half-finished winch. "You sure you don't want one?"</p><p>"Make me one that can save me from going 'splat' when I hit the ground, and maybe I will," she said. "But as it is, I still think having a flight suit will just make me more likely to let myself get knocked out of the saddle. It's a false sense of security."</p><p>"Agree to disagree," Maour said amiably. "Now, here we have a thing that fires ropes." He pulled a bulky chunk of iron out of the pile and untangled the trailing rope from it, laying the contraption on another bench.</p><p>"Do you plan to put it on a dragon?" she asked, eyeing it dubiously. "Because Toothless already carries enough weight. It could slow him down."</p><p>"No, this is an oversized prototype. I couldn't figure out how to make it smaller, so I just built a big one to see if it functions." He still didn't know how he was going to miniaturize it to a usable size without also using smaller, less reliable ropes, but that was all part of the challenge. It would only be useful in edge cases even if he could make it small enough, so it wasn't like he was desperate to find a solution.</p><p>"So you want to make it smaller…" Heather tapped her forearm against the bench. "Fire from the wrist?"</p><p>"Yup!" He put it aside and pulled another thing out. "And I know you remember this…"</p><p>"You still haven't finished that?" She took the roll of canvas from him, shaking it out to reveal a half-dozen small designs, all variations on the same theme. A Night Fury's face, black paint on a grey background. Each one was subtly different in shape and expression.</p><p>"I can't decide whether it would be better to have a happier expression," he pointed to the three faces on the left, "or a more intimidating one." He pat the angriest of the three images on the right side of the canvas. "And neither can Toothless. Togi isn't sure either. It's a big deal, designing a flag for our island and pack."</p><p>"And you've still got to build the flagpole once you're done with that," Heather said dryly.</p><p>"That too," he agreed. He had vague plans of creating a metal rod and embedding it in the flat top of the mountain for such a purpose, but that was going to involve a lot of getting permission and checking opinions first, and he didn't know how he was going to get the flagpole securely in the rock yet, so he had been putting it off.</p><p>"Anything else new?" she asked. "Anything I can help you with?"</p><p>Maour glanced across his workspace, checking for new things. "Nothing interesting," he said. "A few more spyglasses to trade, but that's not new."</p><p>"Can we make something from your list, then?" she requested. "I cleared my schedule with Einfari for tonight, and I want to do something with my hands before spending all day sitting in the saddle tomorrow."</p><p>Maour brought out the list of future ideas again. "Sure. Take your pick."</p><p>Heather spent little time actually choosing; her finger stabbed a short line near the bottom almost immediately. "This one. How come this isn't your top priority?"</p><p>Maour looked at the scribble she had chosen, deciphering his own cramped handwriting. "Automatic tailfin," he read, and immediately a familiar sense of frustration came over him. "That one is because I can't figure out how to do it."</p><p>"Go on," Heather requested. "Why not? I assume it's supposed to get Toothless flying on his own?"</p><p>"Yes, that's the problem," Maour admitted. "I could make something that mirrors his good fin easily enough, but it would be worthless for actually flying. He could glide forward, but that's about it, and he can already do that with the current tailfin."</p><p>"The fins move separately," Heather agreed. She would know. Any of the riders would know; they all had the connection to their dragons that allowed them to, among other things, feel every muscle moving at any given moment. "And there's nothing left to hook on to?"</p><p>"Not without cutting into his tail and hoping that didn't cause a thousand more problems," Maour said. He had thought of that already. "And there are too many different positions to make something that reads his other tailfin and positions itself differently, if I could even make something like that at all." It was an impossible problem, and thus it was at the bottom of the list, waiting for a breakthrough.</p><p>"That is definitely a problem," Heather agreed. "What's stopping you from letting him control it with his paws, or something?" She seemed to be genuinely expecting an answer, some technical difficulty with that, one she hadn't foreseen…</p><p>"What?" he asked.</p><p>"You know, you use a pedal," Heather elaborated. "Just put it under his paw and let him do the work himself. Don't make something new, give him the controls to the old thing."</p><p>Maour dropped the charcoal pencil he had been holding. A moment of perfect stillness passed, broken only by it bouncing off the desk and hitting the ground.</p><p>"I cannot believe how stupid I am," he said slowly.</p><p>"So that would work?" Heather asked.</p><p>"Eight years." He could barely even <em>remember </em>all of the time he had spent thinking about this seemingly impossible problem over that time. One of his first conversations with Cloey had included him promising to try and get Toothless back into the air, and he had been throwing his mind at the problem on and off ever since. "I didn't think of that for <em>eight years</em>."</p><p>"Because it's not what you were trying to make," Heather said pragmatically. "It's not an automatic tailfin, it's a hand-operated one. Paw-operated. It doesn't <em>do </em>what you were trying to make it do, it won't move on its own."</p><p>"Well… yes," he conceded, feeling slightly better. "And it won't be as good as me operating the tailfin. I can tap into his every unconscious muscle twitch, but he probably can't, not in the same way." There would probably be a delay between Toothless twitching his tailfin and reacting with his paw, it would be unwieldy and take a while to learn to any helpful degree…</p><p>But it would work. A huge smile shoved its way onto his face despite his lingering guilt, and he spontaneously reached forward to pull Heather into a hug. "Thank you!"</p><p>"It was just an idea," Heather said, hugging him back without any hesitation. "Think I could help make it?"</p><p>"Of course!" A thought struck him, and he laughed. "Definitely, because I want this to be a surprise. Toothless can't know, so he can't help me make the first one." He would definitely involve his brother in the inevitable second iteration and onward, but he wanted the initial reveal to be a total surprise.</p><p>"Then what are we waiting for?" She squeezed him once more and pulled away, in the process reminding him that he had been holding her close for what was probably an awkwardly long time…</p><p>He smiled awkwardly and turned away, his heart light for more than one reason, and shoved a collection of iron bits and bobs off to the side, pulling a blank parchment down. "Let's get to work."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Von woke to the sound of muffled laughter in her ears. The moon was shining brightly, illuminating a patch of hard-packed dirt nearby, and she recalled that she had snuck off to Maour's workshop to take a nap away from even the possibility of loud fledglings interrupting her. They weren't allowed here, due to all of the sharp things Maour hoarded, made, and broke on a regular basis.</p><p>She yawned quietly, perking her ears to better hear the noises that had woken her. Human voices, one nasally and one smooth, though Maour's voice had become less nasally over the years. She didn't know why, but she assumed it was something to do with him growing up. He had gotten taller, too.</p><p>The other would be Heather. It had better be Heather, given how much effort she and Einfari had put into ensuring those two spent time together regularly. They seemed to be doing some very slow version of courting now, but she was never entirely sure what that meant.</p><p>She poked her head up from behind one of the highest wooden ledges Maour had scattered all across his work area, and saw both Maour and Heather.</p><p>As far as she could tell, they were working on something. Heather was tugging one side of a piece of canvas, and Maour had the other pinned to the wood. There were little rods of metal involved too, but aside from poking one into the canvas, they weren't doing much with them.</p><p>Both were smiling, and they were close together. Von knew that if she lingered and watched, she might see some casual contact, and Maour might get awkward if anyone brought up mates or anything related to that. Heather's tells, as Einfari called them, were much subtler, but they were there too. The big one was that Heather didn't have any personal interest in making things, but always seemed happy to help Maour with his projects.</p><p>She didn't want to interrupt their bonding time, so she slipped out of Maour's workspace, unnoticed by either of the humans using it. The forest was a few leaps away, but she felt like flying, so she took to the air instead. The night was cool and still, and the sky was unmarred by even the faintest of clouds, a perfect, star-studded canvas of distant color.</p><p>She flew high in the cloudless sky and tilted to the side, letting herself fall in an arc in exchange for a view like no other. One eye pointed to the sky, and one eye to the ground, a panorama that combined everything she considered home, from the waves and the trees, to the mountain and stars above, and the moon shining brightly amidst them.</p><p>It was all beautiful, but as she leveled out and returned to a more reasonable flight pattern, she couldn't help but feel it was a little lonely. Even though there were also a few Night Fury silhouettes in the distance.</p><p>She considered seeking out Toothless and by extension her younger siblings, or finding her parents and seeing what they were up to, but in the end, she decided to fall back on her oldest way of alleviating boredom, and flew down toward the Nótt cave entrance.</p><p>Einfari was there, lounging in the moonlight in the small clearing in front of the cave entrance. Joy wasn't around, and neither was Nóttreiði. The latter's absence was a disappointment, though she wasn't entirely sure <em>why</em>, given she barely knew him. She just liked seeing him around...</p><p>'Joy, I thought I told you to go play with our brother…' Einfari put her paws over her head and hid as Von landed. 'Please, I have to rest for my patrol today.'</p><p>'If you need a place to sleep without interruption, I might know of one,' Von offered. Though she <em>had </em>just been woken up there… 'Once Maour and Heather go elsewhere, that is,' she added.</p><p>'Oh, Von, it's you,' Einfari huffed, quickly uncovering herself and standing. 'Sorry, Joy has been especially active recently. She wants to be allowed to go on patrols, and I made the mistake of saying she wouldn't be able to handle it without ruining her sleep schedule. She has decided to prove <em>I </em>cannot handle it either.'</p><p>'Well, she's at about the right age to be annoying,' Von said sagely. Of course, in her opinion the right age was anywhere between being too small and cute to do anything, and being mature enough to know not to annoy people… So basically between the ages of three and twenty, or forever if one was a Myrkur.</p><p>'I pity you,' Einfari said bluntly, standing and shaking her wings out. 'Nine years from now, you will be envying that I only had to deal with one.'</p><p>'You can say you told me so when that happens,' Von offered. 'Want to go flying?'</p><p>'I should be sleeping, but that isn't working out for me, so sure,' Einfari agreed. 'Just let me warm my wings up first.' She began stretching and beating her wings, a common activity after waking to avoid cramps.</p><p>'Maour and Heather?' Einfari abruptly asked, still flapping. 'Good. She is still showing interest in his things?'</p><p>'When I left, it sounded like they were starting a project together,' Von volunteered. 'I would say so.'</p><p>'See, I <em>know </em>Heather doesn't really enjoy making things with her hands, so that means she is enjoying some other part of such a process.' Einfari purred smugly. 'When will you accept that we succeeded?'</p><p>'When they become mates and make it obvious to me,' Von admitted. 'I know Maour, but I don't know human mating rituals. As far as I can see, they are just friends.'</p><p>'Friends don't hold hands or politely request that Toothless and I not spy on their regular meet-ups,' Einfari snorted. She crouched and leaped into the sky, and Von followed. They leveled out into a well-traveled circuit around the mountain, one they always flew when the focus was talking more than actually going anywhere.</p><p>'But,' Einfari added, looking over at her as they flew, 'my sources tell me Maour is the sort of human to be awkward and slow at this stuff <em>anyway</em>, so it is probably easier for me to see than for you. Heather hides her emotions as well as any of our family, but that's different than not understanding them herself."'</p><p>'Your sources? What is this?' This was the first time Von was hearing about any sort of reference Einfari was going off of.</p><p>'The twins,' Einfari revealed. 'Way back, under the guise of asking Ruffnut about Tuffnut and the crazy daughter of the female pack's alpha. She was all too happy to give me a rundown of that stuff in as much detail as I wanted, and then some.'</p><p>'And you never thought to tell me about this before?' Von asked.</p><p>'You were already skittish about the idea of leading them together and seeing what happened, trickery and the sort of thing Ruffnut talked about might have made you not like the idea,' Einfari snorted. 'Now that it has worked and we do not need to do anything, I can tell you about it.'</p><p>'Maybe just the important things,' Von requested, suddenly cautious. She didn't really like Ruffnut, or even know her all that well, but if it was bad enough that Einfari thought she would shy away from having anything to do with it… Her friend <em>did </em>know her well.</p><p>'Sure, we have time.' Einfari shook her head and led them onto a different flight path, this one headed out to sea. 'I want some fish if I cannot sleep. I'm going to need my energy later. Anyway, like I said, she told me all about what is considered crossing the line between friends and potential mates. And about what could get someone killed, and-'</p><p>'Killed?' Von barked. She hadn't known human mating customs were so dangerous!</p><p>'By other humans,' Einfari elaborated. 'It's a tangled mess of rules and things they call "taboo" and things that aren't either but might make the parents mad if they found out. Most of that doesn't apply to Maour and Heather, obviously, so they're in no danger.'</p><p>'Why did she tell you about that?' Von asked, relieved beyond words, both because Maour was safe, and because she didn't like the idea of human mating rituals being inherently dangerous. That just seemed wrong.</p><p>'Because I asked about Tuffnut and that human girl who left with her pack, so it did apply to them,' Einfari reminded her. 'In their case, it didn't go anywhere because Camicazi is going to be alpha of her pack someday, and the alpha cannot have a mate.'</p><p>'So…' Von was curious despite herself, now. 'How does Camicazi exist, then? I thought her Dam was alpha.'</p><p>'She has a mate, they just do not act like it,' Einfari elaborated. 'It does not <em>count</em>, sort of. Ruffnut was not entirely clear on that herself. The important part was that the male in that situation is subject to all sorts of rules and not allowed to leave the island, so Tuffnut would only actually court Camicazi if she wasn't the alpha's daughter. Or of that pack at all; it seems to be meant for males who are not so crazy and headstrong.'</p><p>'Weird,' Von said.</p><p>'Very.' Einfari shook her head. 'We have it so much better here. Even if we do have to go abroad to find males, given the options around here are so terrible. Even the new one, he is older than Myrkurheili and so quiet I would die of boredom. At least, that was what I got from Eldurhjarta when I asked.'</p><p>'They're not all terrible,' Von said absently, thinking of Einfari's own brother. He <em>had </em>been terrible, back when he hated Maour and every other human around. Now that he had gotten over that, and mellowed quite a bit in general… It was like he was a new person. One she couldn't seem to get up the courage to approach.</p><p>'Fine, Toothless is okay, you've got me there,' Einfari conceded. 'But I still think we wouldn't work out. So terrible for <em>me</em>, and obviously not an option for you.'</p><p>'Yes,' Von agreed, carefully hiding her confusion over Nóttreiði. It was a stupid thing, and she definitely wasn't going to confide in her best friend. Not when said best friend was at once a manipulator, Nóttreiði's brother, and liable to never let it go if she knew.</p><p>'Oh, there's a good group,' Einfari said, looking down. Von was surprised to see they were already way out over the ocean. 'Help me get enough in one go, would you? Then I can tell you about all the things Ruffnut told me that would make Maour blush if you casually mentioned them in conversation…'</p><p>'Or I could help you in exchange for not learning those things,' Von offered. She would rather not 'rock the boat' when it came to Maour and his courting of Heather. Not when she was so sure she didn't want her own thoughts on those sorts of things shared or teased.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>The forward agent of the Myrkur quartet made her stealthy approach through enemy territory, her eyes locked on the guard.</p><p>'Fishlegs is boring, hurry up and get into position,' Boom complained through their mental link from a long distance away.</p><p>Ruffnut kept her mouth shut; she was close enough that a snappy retort would be audible to Fishlegs as well as her lazy partner in mischief, and while Fishlegs was mostly oblivious, he <em>was </em>guarding the entrance to the Eldur section of the caverns. It had probably been a mistake to cackle knowingly around him a few days ago.</p><p>'Tuffnut reports that he is having trouble getting past the interior guard,' Boom continued, sounding for all the world as if she was bored. 'This would not be happening if we were out there.'</p><p>Ruffnut ignored her friend. She was too close now to screw up. Failure was all but inevitable, but she wanted to give it her best shot. For once, they had an interesting target that didn't involve pranking the same people yet again. It was so interesting that Tuffnut had agreed to go in stealthily, without their trademark distraction, just so nobody would suspect anything.</p><p>Fishlegs leaned back against the stone side of the cave, his eyes half closed and his book open on his lap. He mumbled something inaudible, likely abandoning his own senses in favor of focusing on Berg's.</p><p>Ruffnut smiled toothily and tugged one of her nub-like braids, moving faster through the forest. Fishlegs was way too curious for his own good, and he wouldn't let being put on guard duty stop him from looking in on the very thing she had come to spy on. That did, of course, mean that he had to abandon the use of his own eyes while he watched.</p><p>'Looks like eyes, probably half ears,' Boom observed. 'Never nose, so you might still get caught.'</p><p>Ruffnut silently snorted at the absurdity of Fishlegs sniffing her out. She told her dragon what she thought of that by holding up a hand right in front of her own face, and turned up her middle finger so that Boom would see it through the link. The Thorston spiting gesture, as they called it, was the most insulting of the many hand signals the quartet had developed to communicate silently.</p><p>That done, she stepped out into full view of Fishlegs. When he didn't react, she quickly snuck forward, stepping as silently as possible. He was sitting to one side of the cave entrance, and she was soon right next to him, passing into the dark opening, leaving him none the wiser.</p><p>'Tuffnut reports Eldurský and Eldurfjall leaving through the central cave with Vartha. They're talking about taking her to play with Vern and Fora.'</p><p>Ruffnut gave her dragon a thumbs-up in her field of vision for a long moment. That left only Berg, Eldurhjarta, and the object of their curiosity and risky incursion into another family's territory. Thankfully, Vartha was past the stage of trusting anyone she met, and thus getting caught here wouldn't end in an overprotective family ripping her limb from limb. She preferred to live through her failures, and sneaking into another family's caves was guaranteed to be one. It wasn't a matter of <em>if </em>she was caught, it was a matter of <em>when</em>, and whether she satisfied her curiosity first.</p><p>Ruffnut made her way through the depths of enemy territory, taking care to check around every corner before emerging, lest she walk right into someone. She didn't know these caves, nobody but the Eldurs did. Whatever else happened, this little jaunt into their territory would help the quartet plan future endeavors, though it would never have been worth the risk if scouting was their only objective.</p><p>And on that note… She shook her head as she passed yet another clean, tidy side-cave. Where were the piles of rocks, or the stacks of old books, or the ant colony in a mound of dirt that Eldurfjall kept replacing every time his mate got rid of it? Eldurberg was a filthy liar and so was Fishlegs, which was honestly a point in his favor. She liked a man who could lie with a straight face, and she had assumed up until now that he couldn't.</p><p>'One tap for every decade,' a familiar dragon said somewhere close by, and Ruffnut instinctively ducked into yet another side cavern. She stepped in something squishy and almost knocked her face on a pile of books reaching all the way to the ceiling.</p><p>'Well, there's something,' Boom said loudly, safe in the knowledge that she couldn't be heard by anyone but Ruffnut no matter how noisy she was. 'What was that squelching noise?'</p><p>Ruffnut looked down at the neatly decapitated fish lying in front of the stacks of books and parchment paper. "And here I thought Fishlegs was clean and tidy," she murmured so quietly nobody but Boom could possibly hear her.</p><p>'You don't want to answer?' Berg said, reminding Ruffnut of why she had ducked for cover in the first place. 'Okay. I understand.'</p><p>'They're interrogating the prisoner. Quick, get visuals on him!' Boom hummed.</p><p>"You're unusually desperate," Ruffnut whispered as she contemplated her approach. She considered crawling, but that just wasn't something that worked on Night Furies, given how low to the ground their heads were. She would just have to be careful and slow, and entertain herself by taunting Boom. "Is it because he is a male you haven't driven away yet?"</p><p>'Yes,' Boom said candidly. 'But mostly because he <em>is </em>a male, and I want to know how best to accuse Eldurhjarta of seducing him. If I can see him, I can see what is most attractive about him, and then use that against her.'</p><p>Ruffnut held her tongue, though she would have continued the line of thought in any other situation. She could hear breathing, two sets of large, dragon lungs on the other side of the corner she was about to go around.</p><p>'Hmm…' Berg hummed thoughtfully. 'Okay, I have another one. Do you prefer cloudy days or sunny ones? Left paw for cloudy, right for sunny.'</p><p>'So much for this being an interrogation,' Boom groused.</p><p>There was a muted thump, likely that of a paw on mossy stone, and Ruffnut took the chance of peeking around the corner.</p><p>Luckily for her, both Night Furies had their backs to her. The new one might see her if he glanced to his right, but Berg would have to intentionally look behind himself, and neither seemed inclined to do so at the moment.</p><p>'That's a nice collection of scars,' Boom said. Ruffnut had the distinct feeling that her friend was nodding in approval. 'He has to have seen some interesting things. But he has <em>got </em>to hold his head higher, that sort of slouch is something I would expect from a fledgling who did something clever and was stupid enough to feel guilty about it when they were caught.'</p><p>'Cloudy, huh?' Berg hummed. 'Interesting. Do you prefer caves, or open spaces?'</p><p>Ruffnut busied herself with studying the new dragon, since there was absolutely nothing of interest in the basic, stupid questions Berg was asking. Boom was right about his scars; having that many either meant he was really stupid and obstinant, or well-traveled. Given he was tolerating Berg right now, she was going to guess the latter.</p><p>'Caves?' Berg tilted his head curiously. 'I wonder… Are you scared of the outside? Of big, open places with a lot of light? You certainly do not wander the island.'</p><p>There was a brief pause, and Berg's ears flattened against his head. Ruffnut tensed, wondering if she had been caught. With Night Furies, there was only so much one could do to avoid detection. Berg might have heard her breathing, for all she knew.</p><p>"Oh, left for yes, right for no, shake of the head for "hard to answer", sorry," Berg huffed. 'We should agree on a system, but not until we have tested all of the different kinds out… Later. We will do that later.'</p><p>The new Fury shook his head solemnly, and Ruffnut contemplated leaving. Maybe, if she was careful and quick, she could actually get away with this little venture-</p><p>A large, heavy hand landed on her shoulder, and she knew she had been caught. But she had deniability, so she shrugged it off and turned around with her best 'offended' look. "Quit it!" she hissed.</p><p>Fishlegs scowled at her. "You are not supposed to be here," he said.</p><p>'Well, that's that,' Boom snorted.</p><p>"Yes I <em>am</em>, duh," Ruffnut said, putting her hands on her hips and looking at him as if he had spouted a load of highly offensive gibberish. "Designated Myrkur observer? That ringing a bell?"</p><p>"Nobody told me about that," Fishlegs said, glaring right back at her. "And Hjarta is always strict about not bothering patients when they're in her care."</p><p>"Well, she's not the one in charge of this pack." Nobody was, and if anyone would send an observer it would be the Nótts, paranoid kill-joys that they were, but enough bravado might see her through where logic failed. "Stop obstructing a pack decree."</p><p>"I don't believe any of this," Fishlegs decided. "Someone would have told me or Berg to let you through, and even if the Myrkurs did send an observer, it wouldn't be you."</p><p>"Well, let me just go get somebody to tell you how wrong you are," she offered. The moment she was out of the cave, it was his word against the word of her conspirators, and four were more believable than one.</p><p>She tried to slip by Fishlegs, but he stepped into a narrow part of the cave and spread his arms wide. His overly muscled, bulky form completely blocked the path.</p><p>'Like a fish choking a dragon,' Boom observed. 'Go the other way.'</p><p>Ruffnut spun around with a haughty huff-</p><p>Only to bump into a similarly unamused Berg, who was right behind her. 'You are not getting away,' he said, reaching forward and clamping his gums on her shoulder. 'Squirm free and I will grab you by the nubs.'</p><p>Ruffnut flinched; one of the admitted downsides of her current hairstyle was that it gave people convenient grips on her hair if they chose to use them. She had no desire to repeat the time Blast had dragged her by them. 'Be gentle, and be sure to wash your mouth out the moment you get a chance,' she advised. 'I might have rolled in a waste pit before coming here.'</p><p>Berg gagged but held on, arching his back to march her through the larger chamber and toward the center of the cave system. 'You did not,' he huffed. 'You rolled in old fish.'</p><p>'Had to cover my scent somehow,' she admitted. They passed by the new Fury, who looked on with the most boring, complacent expression she had ever seen on a dragon. She had never met a more passive creature.</p><p>This might, she conceded as she was marched to face the music, not have been worth the inevitable punishment.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>Eldurhjarta shuffled her paws nervously. This was not her first time in the central cavern inside the mountain, where the four families would occasionally meet for discussions, but it was her first time flying up to stand on the central pillar to address everyone gathered. The parents from all four families were present, and from the tail-end of the argument she had heard coming in, none of them were in a particularly good mood.</p><p>'I was asked to give a report on our visitor?' she said tentatively. 'If you are ready for it?'</p><p>'Go on,' Svarturskuggi said with a wave of his wings. 'We are done discussing the Myrkur troublemakers.'</p><p>'I will see to it that they regret trespassing in the Eldur caves,' Myrkurhryðjuverk said vehemently. 'And more so that they regret me having to get involved. We know what is acceptably annoying and what will get us in real trouble with our friends, or <em>I </em>do, and they will learn the same.'</p><p>'As I said, we have all agreed on that,' Svarturskuggi said. 'Now, Eldurhjarta. Tell us about the mysterious male you have been treating.'</p><p>'Leave out no details, even if they make him look bad,' Nóttleiðtogi commanded, his voice hard. 'Your confidentiality when it comes to healing may be admirable, but surely you understand that to hide his flaws may come back to haunt us all later, and harm more than just him.'</p><p>'I know that,' Eldurhjarta said, fighting not to speak in a whimper. Nóttleiðtogi had been intimidating <em>before </em>the war, but ever since then he had seemed more… important. His status and role never changed, but her family all agreed that there was a weight to his words that hadn't been there before, possibly a side effect of his apparently dormant ability. Toothless had it too, though with him it was offset by his far more approachable nature-</p><p>'Sometime tonight, ideally,' Nóttleiðtogi rumbled.</p><p>'I was arranging my thoughts,' Eldurhjarta huffed, falling back on her most reliable excuse for falling into rumination at inappropriate times. 'In a physical sense, our latest visitor is weathered, an older adult, and decidedly frail.'</p><p>She took a moment to decide how to word her assessment without giving away any private details, then pressed on. 'As you all have seen by now, he is riddled with scars, the vast majority of which come from lightning. The rest are either teeth marks, claw marks, or some other form of semi-sharp object jabbing in and then pulling through skin and scale. None bear any obvious signs of coming from humans, and as far as I could discern, he does not particularly fear humans.'</p><p>'His wings were broken, set improperly, then broken again in almost the same place,' she continued, seeing that nobody was prepared to interject, not even her parents. It was odd to be explaining something without being asked questions; she hoped they were just saving their confusion for the end, so as to be polite. She didn't want to leave anyone confused or ignorant as that would be a waste of her time and theirs. 'They were set a second time, close enough to correctly that he can fly, though with pain. I asked, and he implied that they were only set well enough by chance, not by anyone like me helping him. He has not refused to have them broken for a third time and properly reset, but that seems to be a result of his demeanor, not his true preferences, so I am not intending to make a decision on the subject for the time being.'</p><p>'His demeanor?' Nóttskarpur called out.</p><p>'Yes. As you all know, having met him during the last few weeks, he is exceedingly timid, made nervous by open spaces, and all but incapable of defying a direct order from anyone.' She shook her head, remembering how hard it had been, and continued to be, to get him to say no to anything. 'The only way to get him to give an opinion is to make very, very clear that it doesn't matter either way, and that you will be making the final decision on whatever it is. He demonstrates a remarkable lack of initiative, and absolutely no will to defy anyone.'</p><p>'So he's the most boring creature in existence,' Myrkurljós huffed. 'Yes, that seems right. He barely moved when I met him.'</p><p>'You tried to play a game of tail tag with a frail patient of mine,' Eldurhjarta growled, angered by the very memory of that incident. 'That was ill-advised, to say the least.'</p><p>'What of his past?' Svarturkló asked.</p><p>'That's complicated,' Eldurhjarta sighed. 'He does not speak, which is an issue I still have not gotten to the bottom of, and it is all but impossible to get someone's life story with yes or no questions. We have confirmed that he was fleeing Skrill, and that he fears Skrill above all else. He is worried that we are in danger from Skrill, possibly the same two that chased him to our allies. Beyond that, he shuts down.'</p><p>She expected Nóttleiðtogi to object, to say that she was being too kind and coddling her patient instead of seeking answers, but to her surprise he said nothing.</p><p>'To sum it up,' she said, not thinking of anything else worth mentioning, 'he is frail, mentally and physically weak, and desperately grateful for the attention and care he is receiving from my family. It's my opinion that he poses no threat at all, though he seems to feel he is endangering us just by being here. We know Skrill, some of our own here have killed them before. So long as we do as we always have and avoid going out during thunderstorms, we have nothing new to worry about. It is not as if his enemies were not already ours too.'</p><p>'Well said,' her mother barked supportively. 'Now, I know I was there for much of your time with him, but I have a few questions…'</p><p>Eldurhjarta purred thankfully, glad her parents were up to the task of asking for details. 'Ask away.' She doubted any answer she could give would sway the pack's opinion of her patient much, but she fully intended to keep him safe until he was healed enough to speak and stand up for himself, at the very least.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Each day brought more doubt. Clear skies reigned over the warm island paradise Sterkureinn had been brought to, and the Night Furies lived without fear. Night after night, the family hosting him went out, fished, played, explored, and generally existed without fearing the arrival of a storm, without fearing anything at all. They were not foolish, they were careful, but they were not afraid.</p><p>He understood their lack of fear, but at the same time he did not. They had not experienced what he had, but he had learned that their friends had encountered Skrill in the past, and that such encounters were always violent. They knew a danger lurked in every storm, but the one time it thundered outside, they considered it an annoyance, not a threat to their very existence.</p><p>He had cowered then, fearful and hoping the Skrill would miss him as they razed the island to the ground, but nothing had come of it except pity from his hosts… and many questions he just could not answer, but that was their way in all things.</p><p>Sterkureinn could not help but take in their attitude and wonder whether he was too fearful. That the Skrill were hunting him was not in question, but maybe they would never find him again. Maybe the time spent with the humans had made them think he was dead. It was possible he was free and safe, so long as he did not go back…</p><p>Even though he should go back. He cringed, hiding from that thought. Maybe it was the right thing to do, maybe it was what a better person would do, but he would suffer if he went back. There would be more pain, more humiliation, and he would fail to save anyone.</p><p>'Are you shivering?' the kind female named Eldurhjarta asked, eyeing him as she passed by.</p><p>He shook his head mutely, having long since learned that this family was never satisfied with silence. Sad silence, worried silence, confused silence, all of those were accepted and for the most part not pressed, but pure silence without any indication of an answer or emotion would get him nothing but more questions.</p><p>'Well, it is a nice night,' she pressed, her pretty voice soothing his fears. It was a no-nonsense voice, one that saw him as needing advice despite his age, but he was not bothered by that. His body, mind, and life were all horrible, damaged husks of their former selves, he <em>did </em>need advice. 'Try taking a walk? I can go with you.'</p><p>A walk. The concept still felt foreign, but he knew she was serious. He waved a wing at her, mustering a fragment of pride for the first time in a while. He would walk, and he would do so alone.</p><p>'Good,' she praised, purring at him as she spoke. 'Do not push yourself, and try not to fly if it hurts. I am still not sure what we should do about your wings.'</p><p>He winced and hurriedly left the main chamber, not liking the idea of anything being done to his admittedly crooked and painful wings. They were flawed, but they worked, and he could not stomach the idea of being flightless for any length of time, even if it would end with him regaining his flight without pain. It wasn't worth it.</p><p>But if Eldurhjarta and the others told him he was going to be fixed, he would submit. He would dread it and fear it as a horrible mistake, but resistance was never worth the pain that always resulted. They always gave him the choice to opt out, to not answer or deny or just sit on his rear all day instead of doing things, but that only made him anxious because there was no clear expectation or command to obey.</p><p>Sterkureinn set paw outside the Eldur caves timidly, leaning forward to check the sky and forest edge before venturing out. He feared it, not for what it was, but for what it could host. Skrill, the same ones as always, lingered in every dark place and unexpected flash of light, leering, laughing, chasing…</p><p>It was a clear night, the forests were dim, and all was well. He did not feel Skrill nearby, his skin was not tingling under his scales. He was safe.</p><p>Two Night Furies passed overhead, and he looked up, trying to identify them. He had been introduced to all the occupants of this miraculous island, but most blended together in his mind, an irrelevant mix of traits by family, each hosting a human, or in one case, two that acted as one.</p><p>Whoever they were, they were free and happy. He felt a touch of fondness for them, for all of them. They were what he wished he could be, what the rare dream that did not turn into a nightmare cast him as. Normal.</p><p>He didn't know how, but they wanted to fix him, and he was not about to defy them in that aim. Perhaps, this time, hope would not be repaid with torture, and that if they were given enough time, they could succeed.</p><p>And if they were not given that time, if something took it away from them… He shied away from the thought, slipping beneath a wide-trunked tree and rubbed his face against it to calm himself. The smell of living wood and <em>life </em>was comforting.</p><p>A wild thought had crossed his mind, one of courage and defiance. He didn't like it, but it remained in the back of his mind, gnawing at his guilt, old and new alike.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Heather released an arrow and drew another from her quiver in one swift, unbroken movement. It was oddly weighted near the tip, but not enough to throw her off.</p><p>What <em>was </em>enough to throw her off was the curved blade coming right for her face. She lurched backward, ducked a second swipe, and stabbed up with the arrow in her hand.</p><p>Maour froze and looked down at her, his arms still out with his signature scythe over her head, coming down toward her back and neck. None of that mattered, though. The blunted arrowhead jabbing into his neck was the weapon that had won their little sparring match.</p><p>"That's not how you're supposed to use arrows," he complained, backing away and spinning his scythe around to rest at his side, the outside edge of one of the blades pointed at her. He proceeded to take off his helmet and wipe his brow, and she did the same with her own helmet. It was hot and muggy out on this particular night.</p><p>"It surprised you. I'm pretty sure surprise is <em>your </em>weapon's biggest advantage. Don't complain when I do the same." She returned the arrow to her quiver and favored him with a smug grin, hoping to annoy him enough to throw him off his game. "Two to zero, now. Playing to five?"</p><p>"Seven," he offered. "I need to get some energy out. You know how watching little kids can be exhausting but not at the same time?"</p><p>"Sort of," she said, backing up until she was at the edge of their little clearing. It was only ten steps in diameter and roughly square-shaped, making it a great close-quarters arena when they needed semi-reliable footing. Fighting on the beach was good training for… fighting on a beach. Not really for anything else.</p><p>"Well, I feel like I'm ready to drop, but not at the same time. Tired in mind, not body." He lunged forward, moving with speed that would have surprised Heather were she not expecting it, and jabbed at her stomach. She stepped back and drew an arrow, but he continued to press the attack.</p><p>She let loose a shot not meant to actually hit him, forcing him to dodge to the side, and used the distraction to make space between them. Maour's advantage was his weapon's versatility in close range, and her advantage was that she didn't <em>need </em>to be close to strike him. Fighting him up close was futile on her part, and they both knew it. She needed practice making distance in a relatively small space, and he was providing it.</p><p>She ducked as he swiped at her head, rolled to the side, and drew her bow even as he bore down on her, swinging possibly less harshly than he strictly should in a real fight.</p><p>She knew he was overly careful about not hurting her in these fights, and that in a real fight he wouldn't hold back, but she still punished him for it. The wooden haft of his scythe was coming down too slowly, so she was able to let go of her bow, hold her arrow in one hand, and grab it with the other, stopping it before he could strike her. Another quick jab with her arrow ended their match, not because it surprised him, but because he hadn't had time to do anything about it.</p><p>"Well," he said, leaving his helmet on, "looks like we're going to nine."</p><p>"How about we just say we're going until you collapse, or have won the majority?" Heather offered, amused by his insistence. It wasn't an insistence on winning so much as it was on improving. She knew the difference, it was easy to tell with him. He wanted to win, but he wouldn't change the rules midway through to get one. He <em>would </em>push himself to exhaustion to figure out how to beat her, though.</p><p>"Deal," Maour agreed. "But don't you have to go flying with Einfari soon?"</p><p>"That can wait," Heather said, waving the concern away as she went to retrieve her spent arrows from the ground behind him. Einfari would understand; she was almost suspiciously accommodating of the time Heather spent with Maour. Heather suspected Skarpur or perhaps Cloey had put it into her head that if the human Nótt was going to take a mate, it would probably be the human Svartur, which was true enough, if far off in the future.</p><p>For now, though, she was more than content to be dating Maour, and nothing more. <em>Not </em>being pressured to make the next step was a nice feeling, especially since she had grown up expecting to be all but thrown into a marriage by now. Einfari might or might not be rooting for her and Maour to get together, but that was a mostly passive desire; she was too tricky to push hard enough to be annoying.</p><p>Heather bent to pick up the last of her arrows, then paused. She grabbed it, flipped it around so that the flat 'arrowhead' was held like the blade of a knife, and wheeled on Maour. "Round three!" she yelled, charging him from behind.</p><p>Maour turned and struck out with a free hand, of course; she had expected that, he was too cautious with her safety to blindly swing his scythe around, blades capped by sheaths or not. She grabbed his arm and yanked them together, driving her arrow toward his neck-</p><p>Maour dropped his scythe, kicked the back of her leg, and grabbed her wrist as she fell, lowering her to the ground and pulling the arrow out of her hand at the same time. She tried to hook her heel around and pull him down too, but he was far too nimble and just knelt on her midsection instead, planting her own arrow firmly on her chest.</p><p>"You gave me that one," he said accusingly.</p><p>Heather shook her head in denial, though in truth a close-range attack like that was terrible tactics, even when aided by surprise. She hadn't <em>intentionally </em>thrown the fight.</p><p>"One to two," Maour proclaimed, offering a hand. She took it, clasping his wrist and wondering whether a second sneak attack would be doubly foolish or a stroke of genius. He wasn't expecting it now, after all…</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>'Did you get him?' Einfari asked a short while later.</p><p>"She got me good," Maour volunteered from where he sat, slumped against a tree.</p><p>"I did well," Heather said, securing her quiver to the back of the saddle. Maour had been kind enough to work in a secure holding mechanism, so that even if Einfari flipped around like a maddragon, her arrows wouldn't go flying out.</p><p>"See you tomorrow to work on the project?" Maour asked.</p><p>"Wouldn't miss it for anything," she replied.</p><p>Einfari took off, taking her away from Maour and the forest, and she sat back to enjoy the wind in her damp hair for a little bit. The breeze was nothing compared to taking a flight to cool off, even when it was hot out. Dragons made their own wind.</p><p>'What are you and Maour making?' Einfari asked curiously. 'You can tell me, you know that.'</p><p>"Total secrecy must be observed, lest you prove treacherous," Heather quipped. In reality, she was just making sure Maour's request, that <em>nobody </em>know about it until they had shown Toothless, was honored. She wouldn't be the leak, even if the odds that Einfari would tell anyone else were so tiny as to not count.</p><p>'I will get it out of you yet,' Einfari vowed. 'I'll get Eldurhjarta to give you something that makes you talk in your sleep.'</p><p>"Does she have any of that? If she did, I would think she would use it on their guest, not me." That would, if nothing else, provide proof as to whether the mystery Fury was refusing to talk, or somehow incapable of it.</p><p>'We will see…' Einfari wheeled around, and Heather opened her eyes. 'And speaking of seeing, look up at the mountaintop.'</p><p>Heather looked, first with her own eyes, and then when that proved insufficient, with Einfari's. She saw a curious sight, made even more so when they drew closer and were able to make out more details.</p><p>There were three Night Furies, two humans, and two mounds of pebbles on top of the normally flat mountain. The humans were Thorstons and the Furies Myrkurs, but that didn't help much in determining what they were doing.</p><p>'That is Myrkurhryðjuverk,' Einfari observed. 'She does not usually do pranks with her children and the twins.'</p><p>"This doesn't look like a prank at all," Heather added. Myrkurhryðjuverk looked stern, if mood could be read from wing position and tail movement. She was observing Blast and Boom while they kicked pebbles with their front paws. Tuffnut and Ruffnut were watching, apparently doing nothing.</p><p>'I'm going in to ask Myrkurhryðjuverk what she's doing,' Einfari said, swooping down toward the mountaintop. 'This is too weird to just pass by and pretend we didn't see.'</p><p>"No argument here," Heather said.</p><p>When they got close, Myrkurhryðjuverk noticed them. 'Land on this side,' she roared out, indicating the open space beside her. Heather assumed Einfari was already planning on landing there, given the only other place to land was between the piles of rocks, and thus in the middle of whatever was going on.</p><p>'Would you be open to explaining what's going on up here?' Einfari asked diplomatically, landing where she had been asked. 'Or is it a family secret?'</p><p>'No secret, I told all the families I would be making sure boundaries are respected,' Myrkurhryðjuverk said. 'They are serving out one of their punishments for sneaking into the Eldur caves.'</p><p>"That's still going on?" Heather asked. She was surprised Myrkurhryðjuverk was still holding them to that; the Nótts had all assumed it would last a week before the lesson was declared to have been learned.</p><p>'Yes, mostly because it takes time to think up activities they cannot make fun in some way,' Myrkurhryðjuverk grumbled. 'It is the curse of our family to find enjoyment in the most inane things sometimes.'</p><p>"Hey Heather," Ruffnut called out as she passed by, picking a bunch of pebbles much like Blast and Boom had, but in the opposite direction. "Come to witness our shame?"</p><p>'Maybe she is here to witness your terrible kicking skills,' Boom commented. 'Come on, get them over here, we do not have all night!'</p><p>'You do have all night,' Myrkurhryðjuverk interjected. 'No talking. Think about how much you have annoyed me by breaking rules severe enough that I have to do something about it.'</p><p>"Sure, will do," Ruffnut muttered.</p><p>'There are two piles,' Myrkurhryðjuverk explained for Heather and Einfari's benefit, looking to the far side of the mountaintop. 'They brought every pebble up separately a few days ago, and now they are shifting all of the dark grey ones into one pile, and all of the light grey ones into another, using only their paws or feet.'</p><p>'And this is because… why?' Einfari asked. 'What will you do with them?'</p><p>'Another day, I will have them take every pebble down again,' Myrkurhryðjuverk said in a low voice, leaning in conspiratorily. 'It is just to waste their time with boring activities.'</p><p>Heather, able to look over Myrkurhryðjuverk and Einfari due to her position on Einfari's back, saw that the twins had stopped kicking and were making faces at each other. Boom and Blast were keeping watch, though when they saw her looking, they just bared their teeth threateningly.</p><p>Heather elected not to say anything, specifically so that the next time a Myrkur thought she could be intimidated, she could enjoy slapping that assumption right out of the air. She doubted the not-so-penitent laborers would avoid Myrkurhryðjuverk's watchful gaze for very long anyway.</p><p>'Well, have fun with that,' Einfari hummed, pulling away. The twins quickly got back to their pointless work, and by the time Myrkurhryðjuverk turned around, were acting like they had been kicking rocks the whole time.</p><p>'Do not think I have not noticed your total lack of progress while I spoke to Einfari,' Myrkurhryðjuverk growled.</p><p>Einfari laughed as she dropped off the side of the mountain, letting them fall for a bit before spreading her wings. 'They are going to be moving rocks around this time next year.'</p><p>"If Myrkurhryðjuverk doesn't get fed up and give them something worse," Heather chuckled. "I wonder if she'll go to Maour and ask for ropes, or something. They probably wouldn't make as much trouble if all four of them were tied together."</p><p>'That is an odd idea, and even odder for it to be your first thought,' Einfari purred sagely. 'The thing you are making with Maour involves ropes and tying things, doesn't it?'</p><p>"Not even close," Heather lied. It <em>did </em>actually involve a few cords and little fiddly bits she had tied together, but Einfari didn't need to know that. The first Night Fury to know would be Toothless, not her, and they weren't done with it yet.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless didn't know what Heather and Maour were working on, but he knew they were making <em>something</em>. They weren't even trying to hide that, and he suspected that if he asked, Maour would flat-out tell him it was a secret instead of denying that there was anything to hide.</p><p>He walked in a short circle, Fora hanging off his tail, and checked in with Maour again. His brother was working on another model of the tailfin, standard stuff, but Heather was in the background. They weren't saying anything, but he felt like they had stopped talking the moment Maour felt him checking in.</p><p>'No, that doesn't work,' he reported. 'Fora is still on my tail.'</p><p>"I don't know why you need my advice on this," Maour said lightly. "But if walking around doesn't work, maybe tempt her with fish? This doesn't seem difficult." He didn't sound nearly as confused as he would be if he really thought Toothless wanted advice.</p><p>Maour probably knew Toothless knew he was hiding something, and he probably knew that Toothless was checking in with excuses in order to hopefully get a glimpse. But Toothless was certain they <em>were </em>working on it right now… So why hadn't he gotten even a glimpse of anything out of the ordinary? Maour was making a backup tailfin, and there was nothing secret-worthy about that.</p><p>He spent a few moments playing with Fora, who <em>was </em>dangling from his tail, but would let go if he shook hard enough, and then checked in on Maour again, hoping to catch him bringing out the real project.</p><p>Again, he saw the tailfin, and in the background Heather putting some parchment away. They were cleaning up.</p><p>"Didn't work?" Maour asked lightly. "Well, maybe meeting me at the shore to see if what we've been working on will get her to let go."</p><p>'Meeting you?' he asked eagerly. If Maour was offering to reveal the secret, then whatever it was, it was finished. Or just a really promising design, but after the exploding water barrels, he thought Maour had learned better than to get too excited before proving something actually worked as intended.</p><p>"Yes." Maour laughed brightly, and Toothless' excitement shot up a few notches. He only sounded like that when he was really excited. "Like I said, if you're actually watching Fora, bring her along."</p><p>'I will beat you there,' Toothless declared, returning to himself and quickly pulling Fora up onto his back. Vern was with Cloey and Shadow, off getting some quality personal time with his parents in the ongoing effort to ensure the two siblings weren't <em>too </em>used to never being apart.</p><p>Fora dug her claws between his scales, and he quickly made his way out into the forest. The shore was not close, it would be a somewhat long walk, but he didn't care in the slightest so long as Fora behaved. The time would fly by, what with the tantalizing mystery Maour was about to put to rest. If he wanted to impress his brother by predicting what would be revealed, he would have to be clever and figure it out before he arrived.</p><p>He went through the known projects Maour was working on one by one, dismissing them as possibilities. It wouldn't be a secret if Maour was just finishing something they had thought of and begun together, so it wouldn't be a better flightsuit or an improved scythe or a sleeker saddle, or any of that. It had to be exotic, crazy, something that kept Heather's practical focus while also being interesting enough to keep secret for later.</p><p>It had to be something Maour would <em>want </em>to keep secret, which was part of what was stumping Toothless as he worked his way through the hilly forest between him and answers. His brother didn't keep secrets maliciously, not like the Myrkurs were somewhat prone to doing on occasion, so there had to be a legitimate reason. So as to not upset someone, maybe. He had been close-mouthed when it came to making the last-resort slings made for carrying hatchlings around, because it would have bothered Cloey.</p><p>Following that path to its conclusion, he had to guess that maybe Maour had kept it from him because <em>he </em>wouldn't like the subject they were experimenting with.</p><p>Toothless grunted, ducking a branch and shifting his wings to keep Fora on his back as he moved, his mind half on that and half on the things he wouldn't like Maour doing. Obviously, his brother wasn't delving into anything outright <em>wrong</em>, like killing or enslaving people, or anything terrible like that. But there was one thing Toothless definitely didn't like that wasn't outright wrong, just troubling.</p><p>The glow, as they had called it years ago. The power he, Togi, and a Night Fury from the pack's collective past had all used, once and only once that he knew of. The nameless dragon might have used it before, he didn't remember the story well enough to know that for sure, but he knew neither he nor Togi had managed to call it up since first using it in moments of need. If there was anything he wouldn't want to mess around with, it would be that.</p><p>But that theory had way too many problems, not the least of which that even <em>if </em>Togi had somehow used it again, and <em>if </em>he was willing to let Heather and Maour do something with it, there was nothing they <em>could </em>do. It was unlimited fire and some sort of Queen-like ability to control the body of the person one was linked to. Neither Heather nor Maour had broken their links, and none of that involved making things in the workshop anyway.</p><p>Fora squeaked in delight as a low-hanging branch slapped along his neck right in front of her, and he had to stop as she reared up to grab it with all four paws. 'No, don't do that,' he rumbled, quickly turning around to pluck her out of the air before the branch snapped and let her fall. She took pawfuls of leaves with her, but came quietly.</p><p>'But thank you for the distraction,' he hummed, resettling her and continuing on his way, his mood lifting as he dismissed his worries. Maour and Heather were not tinkering with the glow, that wasn't even possible. <em>He </em>could not do anything with it, and he had proven capable of using it in theory. They were making something entirely different.</p><p>The sound of the waves close by told him that he was almost out of time for thinking about it, and he concentrated so hard he was squinting at the forest in front of him. What else would Maour keep from him, work on with Heather, and be able to hide extremely quickly? It would have to be something small, or maybe not if Heather was doing all of the work out of his line of sight, but then it would have to be something relatively simple because Heather wasn't experienced in making things.</p><p>He leaped out onto the sand and looked around, hoping Maour and Heather weren't there yet, so he would have some more time to think. The shore was empty, an open expanse of silver-white sand bathed in moonlight, every little hill casting a grey shadow. Driftwood lay scattered across the tideline, and Fora leaped off of him before he could stop her, landing on her side on the deceptively firm sand with a heavy thump.</p><p>She let out a pained little squawk, and he quickly pat her on the head with his singular tailfin, holding his breath as he acted like nothing happened that was worth making a fuss over and waited for her reaction. It would either be nothing at all - it had been a tiny fall and probably wouldn't even bruise her - or a huge meltdown. The latter was less frequent of an outcome nowadays, but he knew all too well that it could still happen, especially when Vern wasn't around.</p><p>Fora let out a big huff of air, blowing sand away from her face, and chuffed nonchalantly as she got to her paws and walked it off. Toothless breathed out a huge sigh of relief and followed her, diligently watching as she dug into the side of a sand dune. She didn't seem at all troubled by the absence of her brother, but that might come later when she was bored, as they tended to turn to each other the moment outside entertainment ceased being interesting.</p><p>A few moments later, just as Fora decided to stick her head in the hole she had created before it could fall inward, Maour and Heather arrived. Toothless absently hauled his little sister out of the sand pile before it could collapse on top of her, his eyes on the things they carried. His tailfin and saddle were in Maour's arms, and Heather carried a delicate arrangement of metal wires and a round wooden handle attached to nothing. The purpose of Maour's burdens was obvious, they would be flying somewhere to try out this new thing, but even now, he had no idea what it was.</p><p>"You made good time," Maour said casually. "I know it's not easy going anywhere fast with Fora along for the ride."</p><p>'Better time than you made with… that.' Toothless watched carefully as Heather passed the contraption, which was still a complete mystery, over to Maour. 'What does it do?'</p><p>"Something great," Maour said. "You will have to thank Heather, she figured it out."</p><p>"I gave the obvious suggestion, it was no big deal. I'm more proud of helping make it." Heather crouched by Fora and did a passable imitation of a purr. Fora leaped into her lap and arched her back.</p><p>'If you keep circling around it without explaining, I am going to start trying to figure it out myself,' he threatened, eyeing the contraption as he spoke. 'Maybe I'll paw at it until something makes sense or breaks… Or I could paw at <em>you </em>until you make sense.'</p><p>"Can you stand waiting until we have the saddle on?" Maour asked, setting the contraption aside in favor of the familiar black-dyed leather and tailfin ensemble.</p><p>'If I must,' Toothless sighed. He felt like tackling his brother and licking answers out of him, but that would spoil Maour's fun. His brother <em>did </em>have a flair for the dramatic.</p><p>Maour was quick about getting the saddle and tailfin on, while Heather kept Fora occupied with vigorous scratching and rubbing. Toothless noticed that Maour was being more thorough in checking everything as he put it on, testing every buckle and running his hands over every strap to check for weaknesses.</p><p>Then, everything else done, Maour retrieved the mystery device and began attaching it to the saddle. Toothless craned his neck to watch, still confused and no longer bothering to guess. It turned out to be a set of hooks and clasps that didn't take up much space even untangled, securing to the back of his saddle, near his midsection on both sides. It looped down, parallel to the chest strap, and was hooked firmly in place with the hidden controlling wires that went from the pedal to the tailfin…</p><p>By the time he saw the wooden rod for what it really was, hanging within paw's reach from his stomach, he could barely hold still. The end of his tail thrashed madly without any prompting, and he grinned widely, utterly amazed by the simplicity of what Maour and Heather had created.</p><p>"Now, it's not going to be perfect, it might not even work right at all," Maour warned, stepping back. "You know how prototypes are, and we had to wing it with the bar placement because I wanted this to be a surprise and there was a chance you would look in and see us measuring Von or anyone else."</p><p>Toothless looked at Maour. Maour was giving him the slightly slanted smile that meant he was glad to be doing this, but anxious about how his actions would be received. It didn't look right on him; he was much better when he was confident and happy.</p><p>Thankfully, it was easy to fix. Toothless leaped at him, totally ignoring the little dangling pedal that promised solo flight, and pinned his brother to the ground. One massive lick to the face was delivered, and then a huge, toothless smile that he held until his brother had wiped the spit out of his eyes and could see.</p><p>'This is great,' he said vehemently, still pinning Maour to the ground. 'You are not going to be all sad and introspective about it, are you?'</p><p>"I… <em>did</em> say… I would make something… like this." Maour shoved up at Toothless' paws, silently pleading to breathe, but Toothless kept them where they were. Eight years of roughhousing had taught him <em>exactly </em>how much pressure it took to actually harm Maour, and he knew he was well away from that threshold. "Took me a while."</p><p>'It is a simple idea, but I did not think of it either,' Toothless admitted. He hadn't thought of flying on his own much at all, truth be told. Maour rode in the back of his mind at all times, and when they were flying together it was like he had both fins anyway. Thanks to their situation, it didn't really feel like he was grounded at all, save for the rare times when he wanted to both go flying, and be alone.</p><p>'And it is unlikely to be anywhere near as good as you,' he concluded, backing up and releasing his brother. Maour played dead, of course, laying limply with his eyes closed, but that was just an act. He was still breathing.</p><p>"I think he's dead," Heather said from her seat in the sand with Fora, catching on. "You pressed too hard."</p><p>'I was murdered,' Maour whispered loudly.</p><p>"Murdered in cold blood the moment he had created something to allow his brother to fly alone," Heather elaborated. "The Nótts will take you to trial. We will exile you for such a heinous act."</p><p>'I offer to do something else as an alternative punishment,' Toothless chortled. 'Licking him back to life!'</p><p>"I'm good!" Maour yelled, leaping up. "No need for that!"</p><p>'Then maybe we can try this out?' Toothless proposed, pawing at the little wooden bar. It was situated so that he could pull on it with either one of his back paws, but that made it a little bit of a pain to reach when standing on the ground. It would probably be easier in the air, but that would make takeoffs especially complicated. They would have to fix that… Later. Not right now. Despite his apparent ease, he was dying to try it out now that he was sure Maour wouldn't be bothered by any of it.</p><p>"I figured you would want to fly alone the first time," Maour offered.</p><p>'That's stupid,' Toothless snorted. He didn't even have to think about his retort. 'Even if I <em>wanted </em>to make flying without you a regular thing, which I do not, do you remember testing the flightsuit for the first time? I am not going up without you ready to take over until we've rebuilt this thing ten times over and flown for a day straight without a single issue. He leaned to the side and growled a light warning. 'Get on before I throw you on.'</p><p>"You're right, you're right," Maour conceded, leaping into the saddle. "I don't know what I was thinking. Just tell me if you want me to take over."</p><p>'I'm having trouble reaching the- no, there it is.' Toothless grunted with satisfaction as his claws succeeded in pulling the pesky wooden bar into his grip. He curled his paw around it as best he could, pulling down against it to secure it. His false tailfin flared slightly, and the pedal Maour usually used clicked into position even though Maour wasn't touching it.</p><p>"They're all connected," Maour explained.</p><p>"Because you <em>knew </em>you would have to be able to take over while you two were testing it," Heather added. "That whole 'you can go alone the first time' nonsense was spur-of-the-moment idiocy."</p><p>"You have such a way with words when you want to be nice," Maour shot back playfully. "But I get 'spur-of-the-moment idiot' instead?"</p><p>"You should know by now that the nicer a Nótt sounds, the less sincere they are," Heather shot back.</p><p>"I thought the rule was 'never try to pick out any patterns in deception when it comes to your family, because the moment you notice one it will have changed?'" Maour retorted, setting his boot into the pedal lightly. Toothless could feel the tension in his control bar, the way it resisted him pulling down any more. "Toothless, you want to take us up, or should I?"</p><p>"That too," Heather said agreeably. "I've got Fora, you two take as long as you want."</p><p>'You take us up,' Toothless decided, loosening his grip. He was realizing that he had no idea how his control actually <em>worked</em>. Pulling down spread the tailfin, but by how much? And how did he close it again if Maour wasn't using his controls to pull it back? He didn't think he <em>could </em>work out how to take off without a lot of experimentation and a lot more crashing. 'I'll learn in the air.'</p><p>"You got it." Maour pushed the pedal down, and Toothless' paw was pulled up as far as it could go. His tailfin flared out, and he belatedly adjusted his own to match it. This was going to take a <em>lot </em>of getting used to. He was already thrown off, and they hadn't even done anything yet.</p><p>He took off, as he had a thousand times before, and Maour flicked the tailfin to match the dozen little instinctive movements that came with taking off from a standstill. Usually, Toothless didn't even notice his own actions, but now he did with the awareness that came from knowing he would be solely responsible for staying in the air soon.</p><p>It was a nice night, and there was scarcely a breeze to be found above the island itself. Toothless took them high enough that if something went wrong, Maour could take over with time to spare, then leveled out in a glide headed nowhere in particular.</p><p>"Let's try a turn," Maour proposed. "You can feel me moving the tailfin?"</p><p>'Yes,' Toothless confirmed.</p><p>"Okay, then <em>this</em> is a left turn," Maour continued. The wooden bar in Toothless' clutches ceased pulling upward, and he let his paw go down until it resisted again. They began turning in the air, and he belatedly adjusted his natural fin so that they would actually turn instead of drop directly into a dive.</p><p>"I'm going to be honest, I have no idea why that almost went wrong." Maour, of course, had noticed the momentarily drift to the side. "Maybe the tailfin is malfunctioning somehow."</p><p>'No, that was me.' It took him a moment to figure out how to put the confusion he had felt into words, and while he thought, he let them just fly in a big circle, constantly turning left. 'I am not used to needing to think about both sides of my tail, and needing to use my paws to make one move, while moving the other on its own. It is like… what is that human thing Ruffnut said you couldn't do a while back?'</p><p>"Rubbing your belly and patting your head, I think," Maour said. "I can see how that would be tricky. It will come with practice, I think. Maybe."</p><p>'I'm going to need a <em>lot </em>of practice,' Toothless huffed. 'Now let's get out of this circle before it makes me dizzy.' He hoped it would be solved with practice. It would be the height of irony for Maour to devise a way to get him into the air again, only for him to not be able to use it.</p><p>O-O-O</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>'Where does it hurt, Einn?' Eldurhjarta asked patiently. It still startled him to hear her calling him that, though he had helped her guess his name days ago. 'Scales and skin, or inside?'</p><p>Sterkureinn shook his head, denying that he was in any sort of pain at all. It wasn't <em>pain</em>. He didn't know what it was.</p><p>'Discomfort, then?' Eldurhjarta pressed. She was good at interpreting him, better than anyone else on the island. Practice and growing familiarity were probably to blame.</p><p>He nodded at that, pawing awkwardly at his chest. The feeling was bad enough that he knew she would be disappointed if he didn't let her know. She and her family were already so kind and understanding with him.</p><p>'Is it your heart?' she asked, leaning in to place an ear directly on his chest. 'It sounds the same to me, but I cannot be listening every moment of every night.'</p><p>He huffed softly and shook his head.</p><p>'Muscles? Bone pain? Cracking joints?' She looked over at his front paw.</p><p>He tapped his paw once, confirming that it was a problem with his muscles. He knew bone pain, this wasn't the same thing.</p><p>'That's tricky,' Eldurhjarta murmured. 'Sporadic, or you would have brought it up before now. I take it they are clenching and not unclenching?'</p><p>He nodded enthusiastically, glad she knew what was going on. He'd had spasms, times where his muscles clenched up and refused to relax.</p><p>'It's something to do with stress,' she said carefully. 'I think. You aren't stressed <em>now</em>, but you were in the past, and it's catching up to you. It would have caught you sooner if you were still in whatever bad situation you escaped, but you got out and spent some time decompressing. This is all speculation, though. I don't know for sure what is going on.'</p><p>He didn't have any objections to that diagnosis; this entire island was like a dream come true compared to what he had left behind, in most respects. Worry for its inhabitants aside, it wasn't causing him any stress, and he had worried throughout his entire life. That wasn't new.</p><p>'Come to me next time it happens, or roar for help,' she advised. 'I want to see your chest when it is happening, or hear one of my family describe what it looks like, and if I am there I can maybe make it stop. Right now, I don't know what exactly is going on, so I can't promise anything.'</p><p>He huffed and nodded. There was always someone around in the Eldur caves, so that wouldn't be difficult.</p><p>'Anything else you want to tell me about?' she asked.</p><p>He shook his head. Aside from his chest and the normal pains in his wings, he felt better than ever. Almost normal, though it had been so long that his memory was foggy on what normal felt like.</p><p>'Then I will see you tomorrow evening,' she hummed. 'Remember, exercise is good, but if your chest hurts, stop immediately.'</p><p>Sterkureinn nodded, and Eldurhjarta purred happily at him. 'It's nearly dawn, so if you wanted, you could even stay up and lay out in the sun,' she offered. 'Keep that in mind, it's an option.'</p><p>He kept up his agreeable nodding until she left, then let his wings slump and headed for the cave entrance, walking past the entrances to the side caverns as he went. His walks were never calming, not really, but he was getting better at putting his fear aside and trusting the clear, empty skies to not hide any Skrill. It would not do to skip a night for no reason.</p><p>'Good, Vartha, drop it there,' Eldurfjall said from close by. Sterkureinn was not curious enough to look into the male's side cavern, but he did notice dirt trails on the floor leading to it, mashed into the moss that covered the stone. 'Quickly, before the ants get mad or your mother catches us!'</p><p>He continued onward, and soon stepped out into the moonlight. As always, his first thought was to check the skies, so he leaped up onto a small ledge above the cave entrance, gaining a little height to better see the horizons over the forest.</p><p>In the West, the moon was setting. In the East, the sun would soon be rising. The South was clear, and the North…</p><p>An ominous cloud stretched across the northern part of the horizon, and he tensed, his claws digging into the stone until his paws ached fiercely, in time with his pounding heart.</p><p>He wanted to roar a warning, <em>then </em>flee into the deepest, darkest depths of the mountain and huddle in a forgotten corner. It took him several long moments to master his fear and control his breathing like he had been shown, and his body shook as he struggled with himself.</p><p>The last thunderstorm had been nothing to be afraid of. These Night Furies all knew to hide, to spend the storm out of sight. Their island was unremarkable, the trees too dense to care about, no obvious water aside from a small stream, no signs of life. They could hide, and he could hide, and he didn't have to do anything to make that happen.</p><p>He leaped down to the ground, his limbs trembling, and closed his eyes. It was nothing. He didn't have to do anything to be safe, unless this storm brought his pursuers…</p><p>Who would <em>not </em>pass over an island like this. Not without checking the mountain, not when it was so like the many places he had sought shelter in during the pursuit. Isolated, good for nothing.</p><p>He walked out into the forest, wandering aimlessly as he wrestled with that horrible thought. They might be coming, they might be checking the suspicious places he could hide in. It would be so easy for them to fly down, find an opening in the mountain - there were four, all more or less obvious from above - and check inside. Where the scent of Night Fury would be obvious, where the slaughter would begin in a confined space, lightning scouring the soft moss and scorching the stone and scarring, breaking-</p><p>His heart hammered in his chest, and spidery pains spread out from that spot, scaring him more than they should have. It hadn't hurt last time, and he hadn't felt this way when being chased, or on the ship. It had only started recently, within the last few days, and it scared him because for once his body was breaking down of its own accord, under no strain at all.</p><p>He thought about going back to Eldurhjarta once the pain passed, but that led him to thinking about her being dragged back to the place he had fled, her kind, brisk ways scoured and destroyed by the Skrill, her family destroyed, all the families destroyed.</p><p>It could not happen. He could not bear to cower and hide and do <em>nothing</em> while his body decayed and his saviours suffered in his place. In all the time he had spent on this island, they had built him up, and now he could think of something worse than going back. Something more terrible. Something he already should have done more to prevent.</p><p>Sterkureinn opened his eyes, not quite remembering when he had closed them, and found that he was laying on the ground in front of a tree. His chest pains had receded, so he stood.</p><p>Behind him lay the cave, safety, the comforting treatment of Eldurhjarta, though she didn't know how to fix what was wrong with his chest. In front of him, somewhere beyond the hills and the trees, was the shore. A place to watch from. A place to fly from.</p><p>If he could fly. If he was going to fly. There might be no reason for it.</p><p>But he knew what to watch for, and if there <em>was </em>reason…</p><p>He thought he might be able to do it. Maybe, possibly, though if he <em>did, </em>death would become the best thing he could hope for. But his chest might be the first sign that he would be getting that soon regardless.</p><p>Sterkureinn continued to walk, now with a destination in mind and a plan for the day to come, though the mere thought of what he might do was enough to make him whimper to himself. But not stop walking.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>"Just our luck," Maour said, leaning over to check the place where straps merged with saddle on Toothless' left side. It was a bit awkward to check while sitting in the saddle, but they were already going to be cut short without him wasting more time for his own comfort. "Midday, you think?"</p><p>'We have until at least midday, if we do not go right up to it,' Von confirmed from a few paces down the shoreline. She wore her saddle, black with some fancy red swirls painted across its length, and was staring at the truly impressive stormfront brewing in the distance. 'Maybe longer. I can't tell how fast it's moving or in what direction.'</p><p>'Not fast enough to outfly one of us,' Toothless said. 'But fast enough to be an annoyance. I am not learning to fly my tailfin in a storm.'</p><p>'Pack procedure is to hunker down and never fly in a storm,' Von reminded them. 'Skrill, remember?'</p><p>'Exactly, but even more so when I am supposed to be focusing on something else,' Toothless snorted. 'Maour, are we ready to go yet?'</p><p>"Don't rush me, unless you want to learn to fly without me because I fell off," Maour joked. He tugged at the straps securing him to the saddle, proving his jest extremely unlikely even as he spoke. They were all strong and without flaw, just as he had intended. Nothing short of a well-swung blade would sever the tough leather, and the wire core he had given them would resist even that, to a point. It wasn't invincible, but it was close enough for their current purpose.</p><p>'Also, one of the twins is coming this way,' Von remarked. 'If they are setting up a prank, we would do well to leave before they are ready.'</p><p>Maour looked up, and sure enough, a lanky form was jogging down the shore, headed their way. Judging by the blond, oddly-styled hair, it was Ruffnut running toward them at a leisurely pace. She didn't <em>seem </em>ready to enact some complicated piece of trickery, but it was never a good idea to bet on that when it came to a Myrkur or Thorston, no matter how innocent they appeared.</p><p>"Maybe I should rush," he muttered, leaning down to test the next strap. He wouldn't skip anything, but if he could do it all quick enough to get them up into the air before Ruffnut arrived and sprang her trap, he'd be glad-</p><p>"Hey!" Ruffnut yelled. Her voice was odd, the mental component loud and clear while the physical one was muted by distance. "Wait up! No tricks!"</p><p>'At least she leads with that,' Toothless rumbled.</p><p>'What is it?' Von roared.</p><p>"I'd love… to give you… an explanation." Ruffnut drew close, jogging right past them, and then threw herself down, sprawling face-down. "I hate running."</p><p>'Is it an emergency?' Toothless demanded.</p><p>"No," Ruffnut huffed, rolling over to stare up at them. "I just saw an empty saddle. Room for one more?"</p><p>'No,' Von said primly. 'I am only wearing my saddle in case I need to catch Maour and carry him a long distance. It must remain empty.' She didn't sound at all bothered by having to reject Ruffnut's request, and Maour mentally reevaluated how annoying the twins had been to his sister in recent months to have made her so curt. Some retribution might be in order.</p><p>"Why do you want to come along?" Maour asked, taking a more diplomatic approach for the moment. "We're just going to be flying in circles above the shore here." They would actually be spending most of their time above the shallow waters just off the shore, since that was the only place he could conceivably survive a fall and <em>not </em>subsequently drown, if it came to that, but that very specific location wasn't easy to describe without getting into the reason behind flying there.</p><p>"Anything is better than what I'm doing now," Ruffnut groaned. "I need distraction. The wind in my hair. Voices that aren't Tuffnut singing his newest song of stupidity and mockery."</p><p>'And Boom cannot provide this?' Toothless asked curiously.</p><p>"Can't talk to Boom," Ruffnut said, waving her arms in the air. "We got caught making jokes about Myrkurhryðjuverk behind her back when we were supposed to be silent. Then we got caught talking when we were doing things on opposite sides of the island."</p><p>"You got caught twice at the same thing?" Maour asked, reluctantly impressed. "That seems beneath you."</p><p>"There's only so much you can do when you're being watched and made to kick rocks around all night until you're sorry," Ruffnut said. "Anyway, she was really mad that we were wasting her time, and Blast said something stupid and smug about how she wouldn't defeat us, so she pulled out the ultimate punishment."</p><p>'You deserved it, whatever it was,' Von huffed. 'Making a mockery of Myrkurhryðjuverk when she is just trying to make you serve your time and be done with it. You are just making it all more annoying for everyone.'</p><p>"Yeah, duh, but we can't help ourselves. Anyway…" Ruffnut sat up, both hands to her head. "She knocked Blast and Boom out, had Boom link with her, and Blast with Myrkurljós. <em>Then </em>she sent Blast and Boom on separate patrols."</p><p>"Wow," Maour said, unable to decide whether he was impressed or appalled. Knocking out the dragon or rider was the only way to sever the mental link between hem, and it wasn't supposed to be something trivial enough to be broken as a punishment… But he couldn't think of what else Myrkurhryðjuverk could have done in that situation. They had brought it upon themselves, and he assumed it wasn't a permanent affair.</p><p>'I don't like that,' Toothless growled. 'It's not supposed to work that way. We are not letting it work that way.'</p><p>"Yes! Help me, alpha dragon." Ruffnut held her arms out wide to him. "Save the unfairly persecuted maiden?"</p><p>'I doubt you are persecuted, I don't think it is unfair, and assuming I know what a maiden is, I doubt you are one of those either,' Toothless said with a barking laugh. 'I just do not like that you pushed Myrkurhryðjuverk so far that I have no leg to stand on if I complain about her assaulting you and the bond you have with Boom. You backed her into a corner and she struck at something much more important than your stupidity to get out of that corner.'</p><p>"You pretty much summed up how I feel about it, too," Maour said.</p><p>"Have mercy!" Ruffnut pleaded, falling back on her elbows and letting her head loll back. "Just get me off the island for a day. I might even fall asleep in the saddle. If I make any trouble, you have my permission to drop me."</p><p>'No trouble at all?' Von asked, sounding resigned.</p><p>'You are okay with this?' Toothless asked, casting her a surprised look.</p><p>'I don't want to be guilt tripped later, and I do feel a little bad for her,' Von said, speaking as if Ruffnut wasn't there at all. 'Not much, but some. Tuffnut annoys me too, but at least I can fly away.'</p><p>"If I fall off, which won't happen, you would be catching me with your paws anyway," Maour said. "I don't mind Ruffnut tagging along." She wouldn't be around to bother him and Toothless, it was Von who would have to put up with her, so if Von said yes, who was he to argue?</p><p>"Woohoo, pity from the most boring family on the island," Ruffnut said dully. "Thanks, I guess. Now let's get going before Tuffnut finds me."</p><p>Maour twisted around to check on the saddlebag behind him, and Ruffnut clambered into Von's saddle. They all spent a few moments in silence, the dragons waiting patiently as the humans checked their equipment. Maour was surprised to see, out of the corner of his eye, that Ruffnut was actually checking everything correctly. He had assumed that the twins had long since forgotten that lesson.</p><p>A horn sounded from somewhere in the forest, and Ruffnut cringed. "And it was so funny when we were doing it to everyone else," she groused. "Idiot should know better than to turn our weapons on me. Von…"</p><p>'I am not sticking my nose into a feud between you and Tuffnut,' Von huffed. 'But why is he bothering you?'</p><p>"Simple Thorston thought process," Ruffnut said ruefully. "If he can't target anyone else, he'll amuse himself by going after me. I would have done the same, but he got the horns and hid them first. Now I can't do anything without him chasing me around, sneaking up on me, and blasting my ears out."</p><p>'It is hard to pity you when your problems are all self-inflicted,' Toothless snorted.</p><p>"Good, I don't want pity, I just want a way off this island." Ruffnut sprawled forward, awkwardly resting her head on Von's neck. "Ready."</p><p>'Not in that position, you are not,' Von objected, shaking her head and by extension battering Ruffnut's head with her ears. 'Sit like normal.'</p><p>"You're way too uptight," Ruffnut complained. "Stop spending so much time with Einfari, come hang out with me and Boom more often. We'll either fix you or drive you insane, and either is better than this."</p><p>'Are you two ready to go?' Von asked, ignoring her passenger.</p><p>"Just about," Maour said, putting the false tailfin through all of its positions one last time. It resisted more than a normal arrangement would, also pulling on Toothless' set of controls, but he was used to that now.</p><p>'I am ready if you are,' Toothless said, eyeing Ruffnut skeptically. 'If you really want to take her up.'</p><p>"Not a single trick, joke, or prank of any kind," Ruffnut promised, putting one hand over her mouth and the other over her heart. "I'll be as boring as Maour. Or Heather. Or Fishlegs."</p><p>'You will not act like a Myrkur,' Von summarized. 'Good enough.' She spread her wings and leaped into the air. Toothless followed suit, and they were off.</p><p>Maour looked down at the shore out of curiosity, and saw Tuffnut bursting out of the treeline nearby, wielding two extremely large and extremely ugly horns. Obnoxious noises followed them as they flew up and away, which he assumed was either Tuffnut's way of admitting defeat, or reminding Ruffnut that he would be waiting when she landed. Probably the latter; nobody could say that Myrkurs gave up easily.</p><p>"How long are we going to be up here?" Ruffnut asked. "Please say until next week."</p><p>'Until that storm gets too close for comfort,' Toothless answered. 'Maour, are you ready?'</p><p>"You don't need me here," Maour said, pulling his boot out of the pedal assembly and dangling his leg off to the side. "Go ahead."</p><p>Toothless looked down, then launched into the first of many turns, his tailfin reacting only a heartbeat after it should. Maour could tell from the sound alone that it was late, and Toothless would feel the lag in how his body turned sluggishly.</p><p>Maour leaned back in the saddle, enjoying the hot, muggy morning while it lasted.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless flipped into an abrupt dive, then pulled himself out a moment later, going nowhere in particular. He had done the same maneuver a dozen times now, and it felt like he was finally getting the motion and timing down.</p><p>Learning to fly as a fledgling had been a mostly instinctive process of following prompts and letting his body react as it should, taking advice but not needing to be led step by step through every movement. Learning to fly after losing his tailfin had been even easier; he simply flew as if it wasn't missing and Maour took care of the rest.</p><p>He had been spoiled by the ease of it all, and now, learning to fly for the third time in his relatively brief life, he was struggling to make any progress at all.</p><p>The urge was there, after weeks of practice, to blame the metal and wood between his paw and tail, to go back to the drawing board with Maour and figure something else out. But there was nothing else; this idea only worked because it <em>wasn't </em>a perfect substitute like Maour, it was something he could do himself. He had to supply the intelligence and effort, because wood and metal couldn't do that, not even with Maour's intellect behind its design.</p><p>No, his struggling was nobody's fault but his own. The task of translating instinctive movement into very much <em>not </em>instinctive paw motions was a mind-numbing one, and not one he could pick up all at once, though not for lack of trying. He only seemed able to beat one maneuver at a time into his head, and they often faded out of muscle memory by the next time he practiced. This dive and recovery, so simple he never even thought about it with Maour, had taken up a substantial portion of their morning, and it was one of hundreds of movements he needed to be able to do without thinking.</p><p>He dropped into another dive, passing by Von, who was gliding with Ruffnut in her saddle. Thankfully, Ruffnut had held to her word, and was even now dozing in the saddle… though it looked like she was drooling on it, too, which would annoy Von once she found out.</p><p>He flicked his tail and spread his wings to pull out of the dive, and lurched to the side in the heartbeat it took him to remember to yank down with his paw. His heart jumped like it always did when something felt like it was going wrong in the flight, and the surge of fear that always followed did absolutely nothing to soothe his annoyance.</p><p>Maour didn't comment on the momentary falter; they had both long since grown used to the lurching feeling of one tailfin lagging behind the other and dragging them off course, and there was nothing he could say that Toothless didn't already know.</p><p>Toothless growled and pulled his lever, setting himself into an upward climb. It worked better when he thought about how to move his paw for a moment before acting, but that was worthless in any real-life scenario. He wouldn't have the luxury of thinking out his every move if he was fighting, or fleeing, or chasing someone.</p><p>As he flew up, he turned to look at the nearby storm front. It was a nasty one, sheets of rain falling from the low clouds to blur and obscure the air between cloud and ocean, and it was moving fast, though it seemed set to pass by their island. Far less threatening clouds covered the rest of the sky now, but that seemed to be all they would be getting on the Isle itself, which was nice. His training was hard enough without having it cut short by bad weather.</p><p>But they would need to break soon anyway, for food and for Maour to stretch his legs, so he turned back toward the shore. 'Want to land and drop her off?' he called down to Von.</p><p>'She's been quiet, but I still would like to get her off my back for a little bit,' Von agreed. 'Maour?'</p><p>"I'm starving," Maour said eagerly. "And my leg is cramping."</p><p>'It would not if we finished the new pedal for you,' Toothless reminded him. They had begun working on a pedal that would fold out of the way when not needed, but getting metal and leather to fold in any useful way was a challenge, and they hadn't settled on a design yet.</p><p>"Vern ate my schematics," Maour admitted. "I was trying to work on them while watching him and Fora."</p><p>Toothless barked a laugh, amused by that. 'Then I think you should not have taught him that parchment is edible.'</p><p>"It's not!" Maour complained. "I didn't teach him that, I just thought that he would like to play with a crumpled ball of it. It's not my fault he swallowed it whole and went looking for more the moment my back was turned."</p><p>'No, it's not your fault,' Toothless conceded. He didn't understand how his little brother could <em>like </em>the taste of charcoal and parchment, so he probably would have done the same as Maour. 'Take over?'</p><p>"Got it," Maour said. Toothless let go of his pedal a moment after it began pulling on its own. He flexed his paw, trying to avoid the stiffness that sometimes came with having it in an unusual position and active for so long.</p><p>"We going down?" Ruffnut asked, her voice bright and cheery. Toothless could have sworn she was sound asleep moments ago, and they had not been loud or obvious about their changing intentions… But he had long since learned not to question such things. He never liked the answers he got.</p><p>"Yes, though it looks like we'll be up for the rest of the day, if you still want to stay," Maour offered. "And if Von wants to carry you, that is."</p><p>"I don't see any signs of Tuffnut," Ruffnut said warily. Toothless began his descent, and as he flew down he examined the shore. He didn't see anyone either, save for a Night Fury off to the right, standing on top of a dune and facing the passing storm. Unless Tuffnut had some elaborate disguise on, that was not him. "But yeah, I'm coming with you."</p><p>'Why not just sleep in some out of the way spot?' Von asked. 'Since you seem to just be sleeping on me anyway.'</p><p>"Tuffnut would find me," Ruffnut said sourly. "He always does. We've been here for seven years now, we know all the hiding spots.'</p><p>'I could drop you off on top of the mountain,' Von offered.</p><p>'He'd get Vængur to take him up, and then I'd be trapped up there with him." Ruffnut pat Von's neck appreciatively. 'But Vængur knows better than to bother anybody outside the family with Myrkurhryðjuverk on the warpath, so I'm safe so long as I stick with you. Tuffnut can't fly."</p><p>'And he will remain unable to fly for the foreseeable future?' Von asked, casting Maour a wary look.</p><p>"I can give him the ability to glide, but flying is beyond even my reach," Maour said. "And making the twins flight suits is not a high priority."</p><p>"We don't need any <em>more </em>ways to risk our necks,' Ruffnut said casually. 'Blast and Boom are better for that. No rush."</p><p>Toothless set down on the shore, bounded forward until the pins and needles left his back paw, then sprawled out on the sand. He would go up to fish in a moment, but first he just wanted to relax. Flying with control of his prosthetic was stressful, more than normal, and didn't let him relax the way flying with Maour did. He just wanted to lay down, close his eyes, and not think for a moment before doing anything else.</p><p>Thunder rumbled in the distance. Maour hopped off and began fiddling with something on the end of the false tailfin, which caught Toothless' attention. 'Anything wrong?'</p><p>"No, just a thread coming loose," Maour reported. "Got it. I don't think it would have caused problems, but you never know."</p><p>"You <em>really </em>put that much effort into his tail?" Ruffnut asked lazily. Toothless got the distinct impression that she was sprawled out somewhere too. It sounded like she was laying on her back again. "I know dragons who don't care for their <em>real </em>tail that much."</p><p>'Because real tails don't need it… Wow, that is a big flash of lightning.' Von purred happily. 'It's really good that it's not passing over the island, it's a bad one.'</p><p>"It's not often you get to watch a storm from the outside, either," Maour agreed. "This went from annoying inconvenience to something the Eldurs would probably be studying if any of them were awake."</p><p>'Isn't that one of them over there?' Von asked. 'Wait, no, that's the new Fury, he has all those scars. I think Eldurhjarta said his name was Einn.'</p><p>"Isn't he scared of thunderstorms?" Ruffnut asked casually. "I could have sworn I heard that from somewhere. Maybe it was when I was sneaking into the Eldur caves."</p><p>'He is,' Toothless huffed. Eldurhjarta had told him that in passing, and he had assumed it was common knowledge. Einn, if that was his name, was a mystery, but one that only the Eldurs stood any chance of solving…</p><p>And their mystery, who was definitely afraid of thunderstorms, was standing on the shore staring at one, with nobody close by to watch him. Toothless huffed and stood, turning to look at the distant dragon. That didn't feel particularly <em>safe</em>, now that he thought about it.</p><p>Einn was walking in circles now, head down. Any more than that was hard to make out from this distance - Toothless could barely see the scars, let alone facial expressions - but he seemed agitated.</p><p>"I don't think he should be alone out here," Maour said slowly. "We should go over to him and make sure he's okay."</p><p>"Better than being hunted by Tuffnut," Ruffnut said. "Not as good as sneaking up on him and playing a prank- oh, wait, there he goes."</p><p>Einn leaped into the air, his wings beating awkwardly, and flew out over the ocean. Toothless growled and leaned over, inviting Maour into the saddle. 'That looks bad,' he said seriously.</p><p>"Maybe he's just going fishing…" Maour mounted up quickly, despite his words, and then paused. "Wait, the tailfin is unravelling more. I need to replace it before we go anywhere."</p><p>Toothless swung his tail around, noticed that there were three threads dangling off now, and huffed in annoyance. 'Do we have another tail?'</p><p>"Let's go and steal their glory," Ruffnut said to Von, leaping into her saddle. "Come on, how hard can it be to get that rickety old dragon turned around? He's not even flying right."</p><p>'We'll go ahead,' Von chuffed. 'Catch up with us if you can.' She took off with Ruffnut, and the two were soon winging their way toward Einn, who was headed directly for the storm, but at a slow pace. His wings jerked back and forth in the air, and were ever so slightly crooked in shape, slowing him down further.</p><p>"It'll only be a moment, I have a replacement in the saddlebag," Maour said, stripping the tailfin off. "Looks like I was sold some bad canvas, it's already threadbare near the edge. What's happening?"</p><p>'Von and Ruffnut are closing in on him,' Toothless reported. They weren't within roaring distance yet, but they would be any moment now. He was itching to get out there and fly with them, but his sister could handle herself just fine, in theory. She had been taught to fight by Shadow, and though she hadn't actually been in many real fights, one haggard, tired dragon wouldn't be any real threat to her.</p><p>Maour tossed the tailfin aside with quick, hurried movements belying his outward calm, and reached over to the saddlebag. Meanwhile, out over the ocean, Von roared something at Einn, her mouth open wide as she made herself as loud as possible. She could maybe have made herself heard without the noise, but it was always easier to project one's mental voice while simultaneously making a lot of noise. Toothless didn't know why it worked that way, just that it did.</p><p>Einn flinched in the air, falling a little before regaining control of himself, and screeched back at Von. Toothless could hear it in the distance, a high-pitched noise of fear and surprise, but if there had been words to go along with it - which he highly doubted, given Einn didn't talk - he was too far away to hear them.</p><p>Regardless of what might have been said, that screech was clearly not an inviting one, and Von slowed down a little, as if waiting to see what the other Fury would do next. Another screech followed the first, and though she began to roar again, a third cut her off. Ruffnut was shaking her fist above her head, her other hand on her ear, and Toothless could guess that she was yelling some inventive insults.</p><p>"There," Maour said, tugging the last part of the tailfin into place and snapping everything back together. Metal clicked and clacked, and he pulled hard on the fin, yanking Toothless' tail to the side. It held.</p><p>'Einn is screeching at her,' Toothless said, leaping into the air the moment Maour twitched the tailfin.</p><p>"I thought I heard that," Maour said. "But just screeching? Not talking or attacking or flying away?"</p><p>'You know as much as I do now,' Toothless huffed, flying as fast as he could. He could see that Von was now following close behind Einn, who had turned around and was heading for the storm once more. She flew up alongside him-</p><p>A blast of blue fire passed in front of Von, splashing into the ocean below, and she reared back, surprised. Einn screeched and continued flying, looking back several times to make sure she wasn't following.</p><p>Toothless snarled angrily. Nobody fired warning shots at his sister and got away with it, not even if they had the excuse of being scared and possibly crazy. Von was spooked; she had circled around and given up on the chase for the moment, flying back toward him.</p><p>"He's either mad, or really scared and not thinking straight," Maour said. "I don't feel right about letting him go into that storm."</p><p>'I don't feel right letting him fire at our sister and get away with it,' Toothless growled. 'We'll go after him, herd him back to the Isle, and then make sure he knows better than to try that again.' He would almost prefer to just catch up to the male, fire a few close misses as retaliation, and then leave him to whatever madness he was going to attempt by flying into the storm, but he knew Maour wouldn't like that.</p><p>"Yes, but it's going to be close," Maour noted. "We're barely going to catch him in time."</p><p>'We'll make it.' Toothless glared at the distant Fury still flying awkwardly toward the dark, looming clouds and torrential downpour under them. Lightning flashed sporadically, followed by distant thunder.</p><p>"Somebody needs to go smack that dragon around!" Ruffnut yelled as Von reached them.</p><p>'He does not want to be followed, and he's desperate enough to try and drive me away,' Von reported, her eyes wide.</p><p>'Which is a nice way of saying he's an idiot flying into a dangerous storm after firing at you to keep you away,' Toothless growled. 'We're taking the lead.'</p><p>'What can you do that I could not?' Von asked.</p><p>'Threaten him with a thrashing if he does not turn around, then deliver if he ignores me,' Toothless said bluntly. He felt Maour stirring in the saddle and knew his brother would have something to say about that, but it was a solid plan. He wouldn't <em>really </em>hurt the other Fury, just swipe at his back or underside a few times to drive the point home. They could sort out what all of this was about once they weren't in the air chasing after him.</p><p>"We'll make him turn around," Maour confirmed. "How we do that depends on what he does when we catch up."</p><p>'Which will be soon,' Toothless growled, leaning into every wingbeat as he pulled forward. Von quickly fell behind, though she seemed to be trying to keep up; she wasn't used to flying with a rider, not like he was. If this were a three-dragon race, she would be in third place, and he in second, closing the gap with first… who was getting very close to the upper layer of dark clouds. Said clouds formed a sort of upside-down bowl, distinct from the ones around them because of how dark they were, and underneath was an area of rain so heavy he couldn't see through it, a dense, constantly falling curtain of water.</p><p>'Hey!' he roared. 'You! Come back here!'</p><p>"Look, I'm not one to complain in the middle of a chase," Maour murmured, "but has anyone <em>ever</em> heard someone shout that and thought 'oh, yeah, I had better stop?'"</p><p>Toothless snorted, amused despite himself. 'What else could I roar?' he asked. It probably didn't matter; aside from glancing back and maybe flying a little faster, Einn hadn't responded at all.</p><p>"I'll let you know when I think of something," Maour conceded. "Nothing is coming to mind right now."</p><p>They lapsed into silence. The roar of the water falling close by was growing louder, punctuated by the occasional rolling bout of thunder, and the clouds above them were sprinkling rain, though without even a fraction of the force of what lay ahead. Toothless drew closer with every moment, his strong, sure wings gaining ground on the other dragon's slightly crooked, weak ones.</p><p>But it wasn't quite enough; the scarred Fury flew right into the foggy, insubstantial edge of the cloud. Toothless followed, unwilling to admit defeat after such a long chase, and kept his eyes on the blurred tail in front of him as the sky grew dark around them. Flying into clouds was always an odd experience, and this was no exception; his body immediately grew damp and heavy with water, and there was a charge in the air that made him want to leave.</p><p>"Been a while since we flew in one of these," Maour muttered. "Get him and get out quick. I don't want to try our luck with lightning."</p><p>Toothless huffed in wordless agreement and focused on closing the remaining distance. The dragon in front of him glanced back, and their eyes met for a moment. He saw abject terror, pure and simple, and then the dragon looked away and dropped like a stone.</p><p>It took Toothless a moment to realize that the abrupt maneuver was meant to lose him, but he had already dropped into a dive to follow, so it didn't work. Neither did the four sharp turns Einn made after that, or the spin and doubling back that had him forgetting which way was up for a moment.</p><p>'Stop this!' Toothless barked the moment he pulled out of the latest crazy maneuver. It had to be agony on those wings to do any of this, and he didn't understand <em>why</em>, but he knew that flying around like a mad-dragon in a thunderstorm wasn't good in any scenario. 'I'm not going to hurt you! Just come out of this storm!'</p><p>Einn glanced back at him again, still just as scared as before-</p><p>A massive flash of lightning sizzled through the dense fog off to the side, and spots blocked Toothless' vision. He tried to shake it off, worried that Einn would be making good on his escape, but when the bright spots faded, he could still see the other dragon…</p><p>Who was gliding, his wings stiff and still, his entire body shuddering with terror.</p><p>"Toothless," Maour whispered. "No thunder."</p><p>It took Toothless far too long to remember what that meant, but when he did, he tensed and fell into a glide too, slowing down as much as possible while he frantically looked around. Lightning without thunder meant Skrill somewhere close. Their lightning made no noise and originated from them, so one could be anywhere, preparing to strike again.</p><p>Or it could have been a random strike, and the Skrill didn't know they were present, in which case flying around like crazy or roaring might be a very bad idea. He glided up over the other Fury, finally catching up to him.</p><p>'We need to go <em>now</em>,' Toothless hissed down at the other dragon. 'Whatever you are doing, it is not worth your life.' He suspected that there was more to this than he knew; there had to be some sort of reason for a lightning-scarred and traumatized dragon to fly into a thunderstorm and try to drive away those who followed, but he couldn't see what it might be.</p><p>Lightning sparked close by, again off to the side, perhaps ten wingspans away. Toothless watched, unwilling to make a sound or move from his glide, as a dark form crackling with power passed through the dense clouds, moving down and forward. It was gone in moments, taking the lightning with it, seemingly unaware of their existence.</p><p>Toothless glanced down to check Einn's reaction to that, but he still just seemed absolutely terrified. There was no obvious anger, no roaring and intent to kill, no <em>reason </em>for the other dragon to come here in search of Skrill.</p><p>Then what he had just seen caught up to him, and he quickly turned around. Trying to help a suicidal dragon who didn't want to be helped was not worth the risk to himself or Maour. He was leaving…</p><p>As soon as he figured out which way led to the edge of the storm, because after keeping on Einn's tail, he didn't know which way they had come from. Every direction looked exactly the same, dark, wet cloud fading to a grey that was close to black, hiding everything beyond about a dozen wingspans from sight.</p><p>'Maour,' he hissed, hoping the Skrill wasn't close enough to overhear, 'do you know which way is out?'</p><p>"No," Maour whispered. "If we were not flying, I would not know which way is <em>up</em>."</p><p>Toothless turned again and barely saw the other Fury's tail fading into the distance-</p><p>A surge of lightning struck <em>up</em> at the Fury, spearing through the fog in front of him, and in the heartbeat after it disappeared, a Skrill powered up through the fog and snatched him with its massively oversized talons. It was larger than any Skrill Toothless had ever seen, twice again as big, and each beat of its huge wings left crackling afterimages of lightning. Einn was shaken like a limp fish and then clutched by its massive talons, held under its body.</p><p>All of which happened in a heartbeat of terror. In the next heartbeat, the Skrill looked up, directly at Toothless, and a familiar crackling formed in its open mouth.</p><p>Toothless folded his wings in and <em>dropped</em>, effortlessly employing the same technique he had spent most of the morning practicing and struggling with. But he had no time to enjoy the ease at which such moves came when Maour was with him; he barely had time to pull out before he lost sight of the Skrill, wreathed in flashing power and light though it was.</p><p>"He's not dead!" Maour yelled, abandoning secrecy in favor of giving important information. Toothless hadn't known that, Einn had seemed to hang limply without any life at all after being shaken, but if Maour said so…</p><p>The question of whether they would be fighting or fleeing was taken from him in the next moment, even as he pulled out of his dive. The Skrill, still clutching Einn, dropped down almost on top of him, firing short blasts of lightning in every direction, filling the air around them with dangerous, undodgeable hazards for a brief moment.</p><p>Then <em>another </em>Skrill powered out of the fog, bursting to life with lightning of its own, and Toothless knew he was going to have to flee, if he and Maour could manage even that.</p><p>Both struck, the new one with its talons and the other with lightning, and Toothless ducked away from both, narrowly avoiding taking a talon straight through his wing. He threw himself to the side before another small blast of lightning could electrocute him, then took a chance and fired at one of them, his eyes half-closed against the bright light he was aiming at.</p><p>Then something pulled at his saddle, and a blast of lightning came straight for him, <em>and </em>the Skrill pulling at his back curled around to stab at his underside with its talons. He writhed in place, roaring in both anger and fear, desperately seeking to avoid the undoubtedly fatal blows-</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Ruffnut had wanted a peaceful day, for once in her life. Usually she craved chaos and the company of her partners in crime, but today she had just wanted to pass the time and avoid Tuffnut's attempts to drive her insane. Being punished by the ever-inventive matriarch of the Myrkur family was getting old and she had wanted to just do nothing for a little while and get it over with so that she could get her link with Boom back.</p><p>'You look up!' Von cried out, flying into the torrential downpour under the clouds, keeping closer to the ocean below than the underside of the clouds. 'I will get lost if I go in there!'</p><p>Ruffnut leaned back, let the rain flatten her against the saddle, and put her hands up over her eyes. She blinked the water out, then took a score of fat droplets to the face despite her best efforts to shield herself, and coughed as some went down her nose.</p><p>Von roared, her voice more lilting than the rougher tone of Boom that Ruffnut was so used to. Ruffnut felt them bank to the side, then fall into a straight path again. 'Can you see anything?' Von asked.</p><p>Ruffnut's first thought was to tell Von to check for herself, then she remembered that Von wasn't Boom, and <em>then </em>she recalled that she had no link to Boom, either. She squinted, shifted her hands, and managed to get a prolonged look at the clouds before water blurred her vision again. "No!"</p><p>'Where <em>are</em> they, what are they doing?' Von muttered, her mental voice loud and clear over the roar of the downpour. 'Why is this happening? Why did we get involved?'</p><p>"Because it seemed like something to do!" Ruffnut offered, peeking out at the clouds again and receiving another momentary blinding in exchange. "What's the big deal? Worst-case scenario, they come out with a cool lightning scar."</p><p>'Worst-case scenario, we never find any of them, ever,' Von said, flying onward.</p><p>Ruffnut decided against commenting on that, and instead continued to check the clouds. She saw a few distant flashes, but nothing interesting…</p><p>Though the lack of what should have come after did remind her of something. She barely remembered most of the lectures she had received over the years, but one had been recently revisited and was still fresh. "Hey, think there are any Skrill up there?"</p><p>'I <em>hope </em>not!' Von exclaimed.</p><p>"There's lightning without thunder," Ruffnut observed. More flashed in the clouds like a heartbeat, several in regular succession. "Lots of it. How good are you at fighting Skrill?"</p><p>'I just want to get my brothers and get out of here,' Von professed. Ruffnut didn't have it in her to be annoyed by that utterly pacifistic goal; this <em>did </em>seem like the sort of situation where it would be better to flee, lure the enemy, and then ambush them on more friendly territory. That was a basic rule of pranking and, by extension, of life.</p><p>"We could go up and find them," Ruffnut offered.</p><p>'I would not be able to see in front of my own face,' Von fretted. 'At least down here I can see a little further. And I have you, keep watching above us!'</p><p>"You make such a high-stakes situation so boring," Ruffnut moaned. She took another look, wishing her eyelids were clear so she could look through them, and saw a massive bundle of lightning explode into being, travel along a slanted path through the clouds, and then disappear.</p><p>Then she saw a small figure falling, a tiny black shape in the storm. "There!" she yelled, pointing and then realizing again that Von couldn't see through her eyes. "Forward, a little to the left, falling!" It was close, if Von reacted fast enough they could catch the ragged figure plummeting toward the ocean-</p><p>Von surged forward, correcting her course and flying down to intercept the figure, and Ruffnut hastily spread her arms to receive what she assumed was either Maour or a suspiciously-shaped chunk of dragon flesh. It was hard to tell, and if it was Maour she had no idea where Toothless was, except for maybe flying on his own with the contraption they had spent the entire morning testing.</p><p>Von flew under the object's trajectory, then to Ruffnut's surprise up and out of it, circling around and flying almost straight up in a maneuver that had her holding on for her life, thankful her safety straps kept her from falling right off Von's back and being smacked by her tail on the way down-</p><p>Von's body rocked, her paws catching onto and slowing the human-sized figure, and Ruffnut jerked forward. Then Von screeched, and the body - it <em>was </em>Maour, Ruffnut had caught a glimpse of four limbs and a familiar set of armor tangled with part of the saddle - slipped out of her grasp, both of them clutching futilely at each other.</p><p>Ruffnut tried to swing around and grab something, but it was too late, and Von was a moment too slow in dropping to catch up. Maour hit the water below, not hard enough to hurt him… but it was still a rough mid-storm ocean far from shore. And they still had no idea what had become of Toothless.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>Von sunk her claws into the scale armor and shreds of saddle attached to Maour's plummeting form. She extended her wings more to level out over the thrashing waves, but Maour slipped from her grip. She shrieked as she angled down again, but before she could even flap her wings once, Maour hit the crest of a wave with a splash that was entirely drowned out by the intense beat of rain on water, and promptly began to sink despite weak thrashing. His body was pulled beneath the waves-</p><p>"I've got this," Ruffnut yelled, shifting in the saddle. "Come around to grab me!" she added, leaping off just as Von pulled up over the surface of the water.</p><p>Von hadn't expected Ruffnut to jump - she didn't even know how the Myrkur human had so quickly removed the safety straps to do so - but she understood the reasoning behind it. Ruffnut could swim and pull Maour up, Von could not.</p><p>She skimmed over the water, pulled up to avoid a wave, and banked into a sharp turn, straining to keep her eyes on the place where Maour and now Ruffnut had gone down. There was nothing to be seen on her first pass, so she circled around again. Her second pass also revealed nothing. As she spun around again, she had a sinking feeling. With how the wind was throwing her about and the waves constantly shifting, it was impossible to know she hadn't drifted away. For all she knew, Ruffnut could be floundering beneath the merciless waves, struggling to swim up with one hand occupied holding onto–</p><p>An arm broke through the surface, followed by Ruffnut's signature hair.</p><p>That was enough, more than enough, for Von to act. She stuck out her paws and managed to sink her claws into the offered arm, though the resulting pull would have yanked her out of the sky if she hadn't been prepared for it, and almost did anyway. Her wings strained and beat against the windy, rainy sky, and she dragged Ruffnut, along with Maour, out of the water.</p><p>Each flap was a struggle against her grip and the weight pulling on it, and she reluctantly sank her claws deeper into Ruffnut's forearm. Ruffnut doubled up and kicked at her back paws, and she gladly grabbed the proffered boots, wary of them slipping off but thankful for the extra place to grip.</p><p>"Pulling my arm out of my shoulder!" Ruffnut yelled above the wind, and Von realized that while she might be able to support their weight without injury, Ruffnut couldn't do the same, not indefinitely.</p><p>Von cast about for somewhere to land and set them down, but there were no sea stacks anywhere this close to the Isle, and she couldn't even see the Isle itself, the driving rain obscuring her vision. There was nowhere at all to land, and even if she wanted to try flying out of the storm to get her bearings, Ruffnut would never last long enough.</p><p>"Hey!" Ruffnut shook, pulling at Von's grip despite the pain doing so probably brought. "You're awake! Help me out by climbing up and getting off me!"</p><p>Von looked down, confused, and saw that Maour was clutching Ruffnut's arm. He let go with one hand, grabbed her shoulder, and slowly hauled himself up, his eyes closed against the driving torrent of water.</p><p>She could do nothing but fly steadily and wait, wary of distracting Maour or shaking him free, but she flew with her head down, watching as he slowly pulled himself up to hang from a saddle strap.</p><p>"Finally!" Ruffnut yelled as Maour reached out for Von's sole unoccupied paw. She sank her claws into his armguard, glad he was wearing something to protect his vulnerable flesh, and then swung him out to the side, taking him off Ruffnut, who immediately grabbed on in turn.</p><p>"That sucked!" Ruffnut yelled.</p><p>'Sorry!' Von said. 'Maour, where is Toothless?' She had retrieved one of her brothers, but the other was missing.</p><p>"Alive," Maour said, the mental voice that intertwined with his own hopeful. "Still linked."</p><p>"How- wait, no," Ruffnut yelled. "Take your claws out of my arm, I'm getting back into the saddle."</p><p>Von winced in sympathy, remembering how, exactly, she was holding Ruffnut's left arm, and carefully worked her claws free. Ruffnut swarmed up her side with surprising ease, and once in the saddle leaned over to pull Maour up. Their weights settled on Von's back, as safe as they were going to get for the time being.</p><p>"We're still linked," Maour said. "They didn't knock me out, I was shocked as they tore into the saddle. I feel the link…"</p><p>"Use it, duh," Ruffnut huffed. "And tell me you keep bandages in this saddle somewhere, I don't want to have to use my hair."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless let out a guttural roar as the shock coursed through him. The talons that had aimed to pierce his body shot out to the sides and gripped his torso, digging into his ribs. His saddle - and Maour - were speared by the other Skrill's talons, ripped off in a single violent motion.</p><p>There was nothing he could do; his limbs all curled inward, his wings furling and his paws clenching, driving his own claws inward. His teeth locked, and his vision whited out for a time, though none of it was enough to knock him out. It would have been impossible to tell whether or not he lost consciousness for a brief moment in the throes of agony, except for the link in the back of his mind, which remained unbroken.</p><p>Even as he fell limp and fought to move his body, to fight back against the Skrill now carrying him with his wings pinned to his sides, he clung to that mental connection, hoping beyond hope that it wouldn't break in the next moment. He couldn't bear to access any of Maour's senses, lest he dispel his own hopes, but the very fact that the link remained was enough.</p><p>Which was good, because there was very little hope to be found in the situation he was in. The two Skrill flew side-by-side, unscathed by the very brief fight they had initiated. Einn hung limp from the other's talons, looking very much like a corpse, though Toothless thought he saw the other Fury's chest moving.</p><p>He twitched his tail, then his wings, testing the strength of the talons gripping him. A small shock ran down through said talons into him in response, making him grit his teeth and tense up. It was nothing compared to the strike that had subdued him in the first place, but it lingered, making his muscles spasm and his head hurt.</p><p>The Skrill said nothing to him, not even acknowledging what it had done. It flew onward with its companion, either deeper into the storm or out toward the edge. It was impossible to tell where they were or where they were going.</p><p>Toothless hung there for a time, limp and silent, considering his options. The Skrill weren't killing him, which cast an uncertain shadow over everything he had thought he could take for granted with their species. That was a good thing; if he had been right in thinking they always killed Night Furies, he wouldn't be alive now.</p><p>The link in the back of Toothless' mind twitched in a familiar way, and he exhaled, shaky with relief. Maour was accessing his senses, meaning he was alive, conscious, and trying to find out what had happened after he was torn off Toothless' back.</p><p>Toothless wasted no time in doing the same, well aware that his own predicament was self-evident. He was greeted with the sight of the back of Von's neck, and when he accessed Maour's sense of touch to check for wounds, the feeling of Ruffnut's breathing against the back of his head. They were all there...</p><p>Under the storm clouds, flying in a direction indistinguishable from any other, just as lost as he was. Von was weighed down by two passengers, unused to regularly carrying even one, and tired from flying all morning. They were not <em>safe</em>, not by a long shot. Just safer than he was right now.</p><p>"Toothless, what's going on up there?" Maour asked, speaking aloud. "I see clouds and nothing else, but I feel you being carried, not flying."</p><p>'The-' he began, only to be cut off by another painful jolt from his captor. He yelped and wished he had kept ahold of Maour's sense of feeling, so as to avoid the sensation of being struck by a tiny burst of lightning… though not feeling that might have led to him continuing to talk and incur a more serious retaliation, unable to feel it but still entirely capable of being injured or killed by it.</p><p>'No talking,' the Skrill carrying him growled. Its voice had a buzzing cadence, one that added menace to the admittedly already quite menacing statement. 'Or else.'</p><p>'You did not need to say or else, the threat was clear already,' the other one called over. 'And clearly boring. At least come up with something creative to keep his mouth shut next time, plain shocks are the most basic possible thing you could be doing.'</p><p>'You just want entertainment,' the one carrying him replied scathingly.</p><p>'Yes, and you got the durable one,' the other shot back. 'Switch at the next landing? I want to play with that one. This one is liable to die the second I get started.'</p><p>'We are already late,' the one carrying him growled. 'No. I have this one, you have that one.'</p><p>'Late?' The other Skrill let out a surging laugh, little bolts of lightning crackling around its mouth and spilling down the rest of its body. 'There is no late. What are we late for?'</p><p>'It will be embarrassing, coming back after so long away, when we said it would take only a day or two,' Toothless' captor complained. Toothless was getting the impression, from the difference in voices and the way they spoke, that the one carrying him was a younger male, and the other older, though possibly not by much.</p><p>'You care too much about how others see you.' Einn's captor shook him around. 'We had fun hunting this one down, and we will be coming back with another. That is more than enough to make you look good for him and her, but neither of them will care.'</p><p>'You are as twisted as they claim you are,' Toothless' captor snarled. 'Turn that on them, not on me.'</p><p>'Give me that one, and I will,' the other offered with a toothy smirk.</p><p>'No!' Toothless' captor flew ahead, lightning crackling around it and occasionally lancing out to sting him, and the other fell in behind, cackling mockingly.</p><p>After a few moments of renewed silence, Maour spoke again. He had been listening, of course. "So we have a little time. Einn was caught all the way out by the Waxears, and even if these Skrill came from somewhere close to them, that's two weeks. Maybe more."</p><p>Toothless wouldn't say no to a rescue, especially as he couldn't say anything without being shocked, but he hoped Maour meant he and Von would be going back to the Isle to gather <em>everyone</em> and then coming for him, not trying to do something themselves.</p><p>"Hey, fill us in," Ruffnut said from behind Maour. "We don't know what you overheard."</p><p>"Toothless and Einn are being carried by two Skrill who seem unwilling to actually kill them," Maour summarized. "The one carrying Einn wants to hurt Toothless for fun, but the other isn't letting him. They are going back to a place where there are others who the one carrying Toothless seeks the approval of."</p><p>'Which way are they going?' Von asked. 'Is Toothless listening in? Can he hear me?'</p><p>"He can hear you, but they shock him every time he tries to speak, so he can't say anything," Maour explained. "And as far as I can tell, there's no way to know where the Skrill are going until they get out into open skies. They might not even know at the moment.' His voice was steady, but Toothless knew his brother well enough to know that such a steady, even tone hid immense amounts of stress and worry.</p><p>'Should I continue flying down here, or should I try to go up through the clouds and find the sun, or should I try and find the Skrill?" Von asked. "I cannot fight them both off, or even just one of them, but maybe I can distract the one with Toothless so he can slip away and… do something?" she finished with a groan. "I don't know what is best."</p><p>"Go after the Skrill," Ruffnut advised. "Get me in close, I'll jump on one and punch it in the eye."</p><p>"So no, don't do that," Maour sighed. "The saddle was torn through… Toothless, is your tailfin still there? Can you feel how much is missing?'</p><p>Toothless huffed quietly and accessed Maour's sense of touch for a brief moment, reminding him that <em>he </em>could do that. He was going to have to because he didn't want to push his luck by talking. He was a helpless observer for the time being, as much as that bothered him.</p><p>"Right," Maour murmured. "You can feel, but you can't tell me, I've got to do it. So… your tailfin is intact, that's good, but it feels like the front half of the saddle is gone. It would have torn through where I connected the two main parts, down the middle, but there was nothing vital in that part, just padding… The back saddlebag should still be there, that would be part of the weight hanging off."</p><p>"What's in that?" Ruffnut asked.</p><p>"Enough parts to repair the tailfin and Toothless' side of the controls," Maour said brightly. "And I think that's my scythe bumping into Toothless' side every so often, so that's there too. Nothing important was lost."</p><p>'Do you have a plan?' Von asked eagerly. 'I could really use some good news.'</p><p>"The beginnings of one," Maour admitted. "It all depends on how the Skrill sleep at night."</p><p>"I don't think you're going to be able to guilt them into submission," Ruffnut snorted.</p><p>'This isn't the time for jokes,' Von growled. 'What do you actually mean, Maour?'</p><p>"I'm thinking of us finding them, then me sneaking in while they sleep and fixing Toothless' controls so he can leave," Maour said. "But that depends on us finding them, and on how they intend to keep Toothless and Einn around and not…"</p><p>"Ripping their throats out?" Ruffnut said, voicing Toothless' exact thoughts on the subject.</p><p>"Something like that," Maour agreed. "And we can't do anything until we get out of this storm and figure out where we are. If we end up right next to the Isle, we can bring in a bunch of reinforcements, but if we end up on the other side of this storm, going all the way back and then trying to catch up might be futile. We don't know how fast the Skrill travel."</p><p>'I hope they are not faster than me,' Von murmured.</p><p>Toothless glanced over at the Skrill carrying Einn. He flew without any visible strain, his wings beating at the water-laden air with ease, and sparks flew with every movement. Skrill drew energy from storms, so it might be that he wouldn't tire at all until he got out of it… Or maybe that only applied to lightning to use on others, and he would tire soon. The only way to find out would be to wait and see.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Ruffnut leaned back in the saddle. Her butt was going numb, thanks to her being forced to sit on the mostly-empty saddlebag to make room for Maour. He hadn't made Von's saddle to comfortably fit two people, which was obviously a glaring oversight on his part, though she hadn't known Von <em>had </em>her own saddle until today.</p><p>She was flying on a rescue mission… or a 'go home and get help' mission, they didn't know which yet… but she was still bored, and her shoulder ached, and her arm throbbed underneath the hastily-assembled bandage.</p><p>"Someone say something," she said. "Don't you have a flying song or something?"</p><p>A moment passed, and she debated repeating herself at a yell. The sound of rain on, well, everything, was surprisingly loud.</p><p>'What is a flying song?' Von asked. 'And how does it help us?'</p><p>"It helps by motivating you," Ruffnut offered. "Something like 'just keep flying, just keep flying,' over and over again until something happens.'</p><p>Von pondered that for a while. Ruffnut hummed to herself, trying to find the perfect tune for her improvised lyrics. It had to be upbeat, because if she made it depressing Maour and Von were liable to throw her into the sea. Flying to the rescue of their brother, captured by bloodthirsty mortal enemies, was not a time to pile on the sadness. But if she made it <em>too </em>happy, they would throw her off to save their sanity. It was a delicate balance she was sure to entirely fail at, but thinking about it was still better than doing nothing other than occasionally trying to access the link that was no longer there…</p><p>'I think any repetitive noise from you would make me want to <em>stop </em>flying,' Von said sincerely. She wasn't the sort to do biting sarcasm, and Ruffnut believed that she meant it. 'Maour, any change?'</p><p>"Nothing is happening with Toothless," Maour reported soberly. "Einn moved a bit, but not even enough to get a shock."</p><p>'Oh.' Von huffed loudly enough to be heard over the storm. 'I wish we had not chased him.'</p><p>"In retrospect, it seems like he was trying to find these guys and ward them off, or something," Maour agreed. "But he really didn't make that clear to us."</p><p>"I don't know," Ruffnut argued, "firing at Von and trying to stop us from following seems pretty clear. We just didn't listen."</p><p>"Yes, thank you for that," Maour muttered. "It's too late now, though. There's only one thing for us to do."</p><p>'Fly until we find land or clear skies,' Von murmured. 'Whenever that is.'</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Von pushed down at the air, her wings weary, and settled into a short glide. In a few moments she would have to regain the height she was losing, but until then she could rest.</p><p>She didn't know how long she had been flying. Long enough that Maour, stressed and worried for their brother, had succumbed to sleep. Long enough that Ruffnut had also drifted off, though that was less surprising as she had been napping throughout the day.</p><p>If it was even still day. The storm stretched on forever in all directions, as far as she could tell. It didn't, not really, but she couldn't see any difference between the rainy curtain ahead, behind, or in any other direction. For all she knew, she was flying <em>with </em>the storm as it moved, remaining firmly inside it even as her strength failed…</p><p>The uncertainty ate at her resolve just as the discomfort did, and she wished, not for the first time, that a sea stack would appear out of the rainy mist in front of her. All she wanted was a bare patch of rock to rest, just big enough for her to land on and not fear falling off. Maour and Ruffnut were not heavy as humans went, not like somebody like Fishlegs, but they did weigh something, and together were enough to make her strain to fly in any situation, let alone this one.</p><p>Or maybe that was not <em>all </em>she wanted; she wanted everyone to be safe on the Isle, not out here in this miserable situation relying on her when she wasn't up to the task.</p><p>The waves surged up to meet her, as volatile and chaotic as ever, and she groaned as she began the arduous task of climbing back up into the sky. Ascending above the storm would let her get her bearings, but she still did not dare go through the clouds, flashing and booming with natural lightning as they were. One lightning strike would instantly doom herself and those she carried. But if this went on for much longer, she might have no choice but to try. It was only the danger that kept her down here, under the clouds and rain.</p><p>She had been flying for so long… something had to change. She snarled to herself and turned at the top of her climb, settling into a glide perpendicular to the straight path she had followed up until now. For all she knew, <em>this </em>was the path that would carry her in the same direction as the storm, she could be abandoning the right direction just before it proved correct, but doing <em>something </em>felt better than doing nothing.</p><p>She settled into her weary pattern, gliding and recovering height in turn, worrying and hoping with every flash and boom above.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless felt very alone, though he was within earshot of three dragons, and still had his link to his brother and by extension Von and Ruffnut. Maour was asleep, rendering the link useless, Einn was as silent as ever, and the Skrill were not talking to him. They were talking, certainly, but not about anything he wanted to hear.</p><p>'I do not believe you,' the one carrying him scoffed.</p><p>'Dig deep enough, avoid spilling too much blood, and you can pull it out still beating,' the far more sadistic, older male said calmly. 'Can't put it back, of course, but if you ever want to see what the insides look like while they're still going, you've got to take what you can get.'</p><p>'And you did this <em>when</em>?' the young one asked, sounding not at all bothered by the gut-churning act of violence they were discussing. 'It did not happen while we've known each other, so it had to have come long ago.'</p><p>'Territorial dispute, some random collection of rocks in the middle of nowhere,' the sadistic one growled. 'I was passing through, one side begged for my help.'</p><p>'This was before-' the young one began, only to be cut off by a surge of sparks from the other.</p><p>'Obviously,' the other replied with an amused snort. 'I flew down, let them treat me like their alpha for a little bit, asked about any Usurpers in the area, then decided I might as well help out.'</p><p>'Because it gave you an excuse to get violent?' Toothless' captor guessed.</p><p>'No.' The sadistic Skrill paused, seemingly confused, and Toothless started paying attention. Anything that confused or bothered his captors might be important to know.</p><p>'What do you mean, no?' his captor huffed angrily. 'Tell the story or do not.'</p><p>'No, I did not do it to give myself an excuse, or to enjoy it.' The sadistic Skrill cocked its head to the side, staring at the other as they flew. 'I did not care so much for being creative back then, I did not enjoy it. A good, solid kill was enough for me, and usually I did not even care about that. It was a chore. I did it because… that's getting ahead of myself.'</p><p>'Just tell me why you ripped some random dragon's heart out already!" the angry younger Skrill roared. Electricity coursed all over his scales, and Toothless flinched from yet another tiny shock, this one small enough that he didn't even think it was intentional.</p><p>'I was sending a message,' the sadistic one sneered, unimpressed by his companion's anger. 'I remember now. I went to this other pack, got <em>them </em>to treat me well, waited until they asked me to deal with the first pack. Then I brought both of their miserable packs together, called up both of their lowly alphas, and killed the one I liked better where he stood, with a single blow.'</p><p>'And then?' Toothless' captor asked eagerly.</p><p>'I told them they were all fools, pinned the living alpha, and dug his heart out. The few who tried to get close got shocked for their trouble, and when I was done…' The sadistic Skrill sighed loudly. 'Ah, I told them; "Do not fight any longer. Don't you see, you are all the same under your scales? If I dug into any of you, I would find a heart just like this."'</p><p>There was a momentary pause.</p><p>'Then I ate the heart and flew away,' the sadistic Skrill concluded. 'I don't know whether they listened to me or not, they were too busy shrieking and flying away in terror.'</p><p>'So you were always insane,' the other Skrill laughed. 'I…' He trailed off, looking to the side, and Toothless noticed the other Skrill looking the same way, at the same time.</p><p>'You feel it too,' the one carrying Toothless sighed. 'Would that we could fly with this storm for as long as it lasts.'</p><p>'It has been a worthy companion in this hunt,' the sadistic Skrill said reverently, closing his eyes. 'In other times, I would follow it to its end or the ends of the world, for having granted my prey and another besides.'</p><p>'But these are not other times,' the younger one reminded him. 'We must return.'</p><p>'There is no question,' the older growled. 'Never that.'</p><p>Both Skrill turned at the same time, and in moments Toothless began to see the clouds thinning. The haze between him and the Skrill carrying Einn, his only reference point in the endless clouds, grew lighter and more translucent. It was not a fast transition, but when beams of pale light began breaking through a short while later, Toothless wasn't surprised at all.</p><p>The Skrill burst out into the open sky, and Toothless breathed deeply, relieved to be in the open air again… even if under less than ideal circumstances. The sun was just completing its trip below the horizon, streaks of orange in the sky off to the side his only indication that it was only just becoming night. Clouds spread from horizon to horizon, darker directly under the Skrill.</p><p>'Yours is awake,' the sadistic one noted. 'Shock it.'</p><p>'So long as it remains still and does not speak, I am not shocking it,' the angry one said deliberately. His head was up, and he refrained from making his intentions blindingly obvious by looking down at Toothless, but he knew he was being spoken to directly.</p><p>'You will have to set an example sooner or later,' the other rumbled thunderously. 'I await that moment.'</p><p>'If this one is smart, it will not make me do anything like that,' Toothless' captor said. 'But if it is not… I will not mind.'</p><p>'You had better not mind, child,' the sadistic one sneered. 'Or I'll find a way to kill you, rules or not.'</p><p>'My hatred for Usurpers shines just as bright as yours, old torturer,' Toothless' captor spat back. A bolt of lightning leaped between them, doing no apparent harm to either. 'Never doubt that.'</p><p>A boiling rage colored his tone, one Toothless found surprisingly familiar. It was reminiscent of how Nóttreiði had spoken about Maour, back before the war and his change of heart, but with a sharper, more sure edge. Where Nóttreiði had sounded as if he spoke from second-paw experience alone, this Skrill spoke as if he personally had reason to hate.</p><p>'Never give me reason to doubt it.' The older Skrill shook Einn in his talons for emphasis. 'We are barred from the easy way of proving your drive, and from the reward, but the fate of those led astray remains the same, the same as those doing the usurping.'</p><p>'No, it does not,' Toothless' captor snarled. 'Not for this one.'</p><p>'Not for them, but after the long years we have spent on guard, can you really say their fate is better?' the older one asked. 'And now you have got me thinking too much. Pass me that Usurper to play with, or I might knock you around in its stead.'</p><p>'You will kill it by accident.' Toothless' captor shook him around a bit for no apparent reason. 'And I want to save you as a punishment.'</p><p>'I suppose there is something to be said for anticipation,' the other growled. 'Besides, we will need to ground them soon enough anyway. I will enjoy that.'</p><p>'We will do it once we land,' Toothless' captor agreed. 'I can fly through the night, can you?'</p><p>'Better than you can,' the other Skrill snorted.</p><p>Toothless had been worried before, but now he was past worried and on to terrified. He had survived being grounded once, and probably could again, but the scars on Einn's wings implied this grounding was unlikely to be as easy and painless as taking his false tailfin off. If it were not for his inability to fly even now, he would have fought to get loose, shocks and the futility of trying to escape notwithstanding.</p><p>Instead of fighting, he turned to Maour, accessing all of his brother's senses in an effort to calm himself. Maour was asleep, which was good, in a way. A blank darkness filled Toothless' vision, and the gentle up and down motions of Von flying beneath him replaced the much more active, jerky motions of the Skrill. The talons digging into his side disappeared, and all he felt were Maour's small collection of bruises.</p><p>At worst, he could seek refuge in Maour's senses when it happened. At best, he could use this calm, quiet place to figure out a way to avoid being grounded…</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>'Wake up!'</p><p>"Hey, sleepy, get your weird back armor out of my face," Ruffnut grumbled. A hand shoved him forward, then grabbed his shoulder when he began to tilt out of the saddle.</p><p>Maour reached up to wipe his face off, glad the rain was warm, and blinked rapidly. He could feel Toothless riding in the back of his mind, accessing all of his senses, which was a relief. Toothless would never risk that unless absolutely nothing was happening where he was.</p><p>As for where they were… He looked around, confused. "What is it?" he asked. They were still flying under a dark, cloudy sky. It seemed to be night now, or close to it.</p><p>'We're finally out of the storm,' Von exclaimed.</p><p>"So is Toothless," Maour added, checking in with his brother, who still hung limply in the Skrill's grasp. "They're heading off to the left of the rising moon."</p><p>"So where are they going?" Ruffnut asked.</p><p>"Not back to the Waxears," Maour murmured. That would make finding Toothless again harder, if they didn't stay right on his tail now. He looked around, but the Isle was nowhere to be seen. The storm they had left was behind them, and presumably if Von took them above the clouds they could find their way…</p><p>He wished he had something to draw on; there was parchment in the saddlebag, plenty of it, but not in <em>Von's </em>saddle. Toothless had it. "I need to see where the moon is," he said, popping open one of the small compartments built into his armguard. There was a charcoal pencil inside, dull but usable, so he was halfway there.</p><p>'I just saw it a moment ago, right when we came out into the open,' Von said. 'We are flying toward it. But I want to stay down here and find somewhere to set down.'</p><p>"Yeah, you don't look so good," Ruffnut remarked. "Wings only tremble like that when they're about to collapse."</p><p>'I can keep going… but not for long.' Von growled worriedly. 'Maour, where are we? I know you have mapped every tiny chunk of rock within a day's flight of the Isle.'</p><p>"I'm working on it," Maour muttered, resorting to making nearly illegible marks on Von's saddle, scribbling over one of the patches dyed red. He drew a crude oval to denote the isle, and a moon to the east of it. Then he marked the storm, which had been moving parallel to the Isle's shore…</p><p>"I <em>think</em> we flew with the storm for a while, then came out the other side?" He traced that path with his finger and frowned; it didn't work if they had gone totally straight. "Von, did you change direction at some point?"</p><p>'Yes, not that long ago. Is that good?'</p><p>"It got us out, so yes," he assured her. That made sense, and gave him a rough location for where they were. The storm was between them and the Isle, and they were flying directly away from both, headed East.</p><p>"There should be a few sea stacks off to the right, if you turn now," he reasoned. "Two or three small ones. They'll only be visible once you get close, they're not that big."</p><p>Von banked to the right, and Maour saw what Ruffnut had pointed out. His sister was tired, close to the point of collapse. He hoped they could get to the sea stacks in time. When they did, Von would need rest, widening the gap between them and Toothless.</p><p>"Not that I don't want to stretch my legs," Ruffnut drawled, "but what are we going to do after that? I'm up for a fight, but unless Von can cough up a spear or something, I've got nothing."</p><p>'I am not in the habit of swallowing sharp things,' Von huffed.</p><p>"My scythe is with Toothless," Maour said. "We have two options, though. We could go back to the Isle, gather everyone else, and come after Toothless with them. Or we could find these sea stacks, let Von rest, and then try to get to him ourselves wherever they set down. They have to sleep sometime, and if I can get some time with our gear, I can get him into the air." He had assembled the supplies in Toothless' saddlebag with the intention of being able to do something exactly like this, devoid of a forge or time to improvise.</p><p>'I see the sea stacks!' Von exclaimed, diving forward. The lumpy rock formations were just as Maour remembered them, squat and so low that higher waves splashed up onto them, wide enough for a dragon or two but not much else.</p><p>Von landed, then promptly collapsed, her wings folding in with a shaky slowness that made Maour wonder just how close they had come to falling into the ocean.</p><p>"Great work, sister," he said, scratching behind her ears. Ruffnut leaped out of the saddle and began walking in circles on the small patch of rock open to her.</p><p>'How long do I have to rest?' Von asked.</p><p>"That depends…" Maour checked Toothless' senses, but all he saw was the Skrill flying in the same direction, above the clouds. They weren't even looking for a place to land, implying they would be going for a while. "We need to decide what we're doing."</p><p>'It does not feel safe to take the time to go back and get everyone else,' Von huffed. 'But it also doesn't feel safe to go after him alone.'</p><p>"We won't be getting into a direct fight with them, we're just getting Toothless free, maybe Einn, and then getting away," Maour reminded her. "If we can."</p><p>'It sounds like you have made up your mind,' Von remarked.</p><p>"I haven't yet," Maour objected. "Let's go through the advantages and disadvantages. If we go back to the Isle, what do we get?"</p><p>"Overwhelming firepower," Ruffnut supplied helpfully. "That's pretty much it."</p><p>"And what do we lose?" Maour continued.</p><p>'Time,' Von huffed. 'Which we do not have any of in the first place. They are Skrill, we need to save him as soon as possible. The further he gets from us, the harder it will be to find him, and they could knock him out at any time and then change directions."</p><p>Maour cringed, imagining that terrible scenario. They wouldn't know where to look, whether Toothless was dead or alive, or where the Skrill were going. "Yeah, that's bad," he agreed. "Now, going after him with just the three of us. What do we get?"</p><p>"We can follow close behind and maybe catch them before the end of tomorrow, if Von is fast enough," Ruffnut offered. "You'll do your sneaky repairs, I'll do something awesome and helpful, and we'll all leave. Maybe we'll even get the chance to kill them without a fight. I can do that."</p><p>"And what do we lose?" Maour asked.</p><p>'Our safety net,' Von murmured. 'We will be on our own, and every moment we spend chasing the Skrill makes going back to the Isle worse and worse as an option. We only get to make this choice once. And if I cannot catch up…'</p><p>"They're carrying an entire dragon each, you only have to carry two humans," Maour assured her. "You'll catch up. Toothless, anything to add?" He checked Toothless' sight and saw his brother nodding frantically. "Yes, apparently…" He wasn't quite sure <em>how </em>Toothless was going to say anything-</p><p>'Grounding us when land dawn!' Toothless barked. Then he roared, a strained sound, and his head fell, his eyes half closed. He wasn't unconscious, but he definitely wasn't feeling good.</p><p>'I think this one is already cracking from the fear,' the Skrill carrying Toothless said. 'That will make things interesting.'</p><p>'It is a strange one, flying with a human on its back,' the other hummed. 'If I cared, I would interrogate it, but there's really no point. The human is dead anyway.'</p><p>'Leave that to the one most suited to getting answers,' the first Skrill chuckled. 'You are good at inflicting pain, but not much else.'</p><p>When the Skrill fell back into silence, Maour turned his mind to the quick message Toothless had valued enough to suffer for in passing it on. "He said 'grounding us when land dawn,'" he relayed, understanding the meaning even as he spoke. "They're going to ground them once they set down in the morning!'</p><p>Von whined, and Ruffnut clenched her fists angrily. "That answers that question," Ruffnut growled. "We're going. There's no way we can catch up to them in time if we go back to the Isle first."</p><p>'I agree,' Von snarled. 'I will fly fast. We should go now.' She made to rise-</p><p>"No, not now," Maour said urgently. "You rest. We need you in the best possible shape to make this next flight. We have until dawn, and it is early in the night. You can fly faster if you're rested." Not to mention that they would be at a lesser risk of her overexerting herself and dooming everyone.</p><p>'Knock me out, then, please,' Von requested, tilting her head to give Maour access to her pressure point. 'I do not want to waste time falling asleep.'</p><p>"You got it," he said, seeking out the soft spot on the underside of her chin and pressing it gently. She fell limp, and he stepped out of the way before she could pin him beneath her.</p><p>"Well, this is going to be boring," Ruffnut huffed. "Any chance that brilliant mind of yours could make me a weapon while we're waiting?"</p><p>Maour considered the sea stack around them, and what he had on himself. Some of his equipment was too useful to break apart for materials, such as his flightsuit, but there were other things he could do… And it would make him feel like he was working toward saving Toothless, even as they waited while he was carried further and further away. "I'll see what I can do."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>Every time Von looked up, the moon had moved. That was normal, of course, but she had never felt so rushed by the passage of time, and felt it all the more keenly each time she checked.</p><p>She was racing to catch up with her brother before dawn, and the stakes were high. Nobody else could do what she was doing. Toothless was helpless, Maour and Ruffnut could not fly, and nobody else even knew what was going on. They were all depending on her.</p><p>Her wings ached from the exertion of flying all day, a short rest had not fixed that, but she powered on anyway, pushing the pain out of her mind. She would be sore like never before at the end of this night, and even if she did make it in time she might have to fly more as they all beat a hasty retreat after saving Toothless, but it would all be worth it if she could just move fast enough.</p><p>Aching muscles were nothing when compared to the agony of her brother being severely hurt and crippled <em>again</em>, this time because she just wasn't fast enough.</p><p>"Slow down, keep to a pace you can maintain all the way through the night," Maour said, not for the first time. His hands were on her wing shoulders, feeling the strain she endured with every beat of her wings. "This is a marathon, not a sprint."</p><p>"What's the difference?" Ruffnut asked idly. "Everything is a sprint if you want to get away badly enough."</p><p>"Marathons are where you are going a long distance and need to conserve your strength," Maour explained. "Like this. If we were, say, racing the Skrill to an island close by, then it would be a sprint."</p><p>"But she's flying, not running," Ruffnut objected.</p><p>"Same thing," Maour huffed.</p><p>'Same thing,' Von agreed, straining to speak without sparing any breath or breaking her concentration. She hoped they would not continue that argument; it was distracting and she couldn't afford any distractions. She had to focus on flying at just the right speed, fast enough without exhausting herself too soon.</p><p>It was such a strain, pushing her limits while carrying two humans, a saddle, and the fate of her brother on her back. She wanted to land and pass the burden to anyone more suited to carrying it. Her mother or father, or maybe even Einfari. But it was all on her.</p><p>She looked up and saw that the moon had moved again. Time was passing.</p><p>"Toothless is still hanging in there," Maour said. "He hasn't seen any islands, and neither have we, so we don't know how much ground we've made up… but we must have made up <em>some</em>."</p><p>"And since we didn't see any islands, we know we're on the right path?" Ruffnut asked.</p><p>"This part of the ocean is pretty much empty, save for a few little islands," Maour explained. "It doesn't mean we're going exactly the same way, it just means we haven't strayed off in a totally different direction."</p><p>Or, Von added in her head, it just meant they didn't know how far off they were at the moment. She knew that she was going in vaguely the right way, Toothless could see the moon too and that gave her a heading, but small differences in direction became massive differences in destination.</p><p>All she could do was push herself harder and bear the crushing knowledge that, for the first time ever, something vitally important depended on her, and she might not be up to the task.</p><p>"Wait," Maour said urgently. "Okay, Toothless just saw an island in the distance."</p><p>'Are they setting down?' Von asked.</p><p>"No, they're going to keep flying," Maour reported. "But now we have a way to see how far away we are. You keep going like normal, I'll keep an eye out for it."</p><p>"I'll keep both eyes out for it," Ruffnut grumbled. "If we find it soon, does that mean I get a bathroom break that isn't ridiculously awkward?"</p><p>'We agreed not to talk about that,' Von groaned. There were some things one just didn't mention when flying long distances, and relieving oneself was on the top of that list.</p><p>"I'm just saying, it would be nice," Ruffnut grumbled. "Where is this island?"</p><p>"Ahead of us," Maour answered. "It's by how much that worries me."</p><p>Von nodded at that, and flapped a little harder. Every moment she spent flying without seeing the island was another moment she was going to somehow have to gain on them before the sun rose.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless dangled from the Skrill's grip, uncomfortable, thirsty, and more worried by the moment. They had long since left the last island behind, and Von had yet to even reach it. His siblings were trying their hardest, but at this rate they wouldn't make it in time. The sky was beginning to lighten, an almost imperceptible change from black to the darkest grey.</p><p>"Toothless…" Maour's voice was low and worried. "We just found the island. It was off to our left, and we're correcting our course… but it doesn't look good."</p><p>Toothless shook his head wordlessly. Not looking good was a pleasant understatement; unless Von pulled out some miraculous second wind worthy of legend, she wasn't going to catch up fast enough. The moon was sinking into the ocean off to his left, and the sky brightening to his right. Von was only now reaching where his captors had been hours ago.</p><p>His only remaining hope was that there would be no islands, sea stacks, or any other kind of land for the Skrill to set down on. They didn't seem willing or able to ground him and Einn while flying, possibly for fear of an accident. It would only take a few well-timed claw slashes to put holes in even a Skrill's wings, and then they would be doomed. If they didn't just shock him senseless first, that was. He wasn't counting on being able to fight back when the time came, in the air or on the ground. They had the upper claw and weren't likely to give it up.</p><p>He stared at the horizon as the sun came up, hoping that the unbroken line between water and sky would remain unbroken long enough for Von to catch up…</p><p>Though he still didn't know what she would do once she did. The plan was for her to trail behind, close but out of sight, until they found a place to land. Then Maour would sneak in and fix his saddle… But that would require a distraction, lest the Skrill cripple him and Einn right away, and the only available distractions were Von or Ruffnut, neither of whom would be capable of handling two vicious Skrill on their own, or even together.</p><p>He wished he could talk to Maour. Their plan wasn't going to work, but he couldn't say that. The Skrill would shock him before he could get more than a couple of words out. Mental voice or not, it was near-impossible to talk when every muscle in his body was doing its best to contract until he was a tiny, cramped ball. There would be no lengthy discussion, and his brother didn't seem to see any problem with their vague plan, so it wouldn't happen without him, either.</p><p>A dark smudge appeared in the distance, and Toothless wanted to groan. It was an island, a small one but more than large enough for the purposes of these Skrill. He didn't recognize it specifically, even as they drew closer, but he knew it was one of the little hunks of rock and greenery on Maour's map, more than a night's flight out from the Isle.</p><p>"Okay, that's not good," Maour said in his head. "We're never going to make it in time. Toothless, I hope you have a plan you can't tell me."</p><p>Toothless thought about it for a moment, then nodded even though he had no idea. Maour was going to be stressed and worried as it was, there was no reason to worry him even more before something terrible actually happened. It would be bad enough then…</p><p>He could feel his wings straining against the Skrill's grip, even though breaking free would do absolutely no good. He might be able to fly with his pedal if the tailfin was somehow in working condition, but never fast enough to escape, or well enough to fight. But soon he might not be able to fly at all…</p><p>The Skrill passed over the island once, looking down at the tangle of trees, spit of clear land by one shore, and sheer cliffs that blocked all the others. It was tiny, taking only a dozen heartbeats to fly over at a decent pace, and they circled it in moments, doubling back to land on the shore.</p><p>'Good enough,' the one carrying Einn grunted. 'We resting here afterward, or are you up for another day?'</p><p>'Are <em>you</em>?' the Skrill carrying him shot back. 'After that storm, I could go for a week without sleeping.'</p><p>'Overestimate yourself and I will leave you to drown when you fall out of the sky,' the other warned. 'I can go until nightfall if we stop here long enough to ground them.'</p><p>'And so can I,' Toothless' captor growled. 'Don't pretend it's your decision. I <em>will </em>keep going, whether or not you say I can.'</p><p>'I don't care,' Einn's captor snapped, diving down to land on the shore. He hit the sand talons-first, and by extension Einn-first, and skidded a short distance atop Einn's limp form, flapping his wings for balance.</p><p>Toothless braced himself, but he was nonetheless unprepared for the impact. Sand sprayed across his face, and his underside felt scraped raw as the Skrill used his body to stop itself. His head ended up buried in the sand, his nostrils full of it, but before he could choke or even snort out the Skrill yanked him up again.</p><p>'What is the method for this?' his captor asked, eyeing the other Skrill. 'I have ideas, but I assume all of your experience is good for something other than gruesome stories.'</p><p>'Watch and learn.' A small sizzle of energy flickered under the other Skrill's talons, and Einn spasmed. His eyes fluttered closed-</p><p>'Idiot!' Toothless' captor snarled. 'What are you doing? You might kill it!'</p><p>'I barely put anything into it, this one is just hopeless,' Einn's captor snorted, leaping away from him. 'You'll need to put some effort in yours, though. It looks more resilient, and you're weak.'</p><p>'Keep talking like that-'</p><p>The other Skrill roared mightily, the noise amplified by a scattered set of cracks that made Toothless wince, lightning dancing across its back. Toothless' captor roared right back at him, matching the noise, or trying to.</p><p>'You will not shut me up!' Toothless' captor seethed.</p><p>'I was not <em>trying </em>to,' the older Skrill snorted. 'That was to draw out anyone nearby.'</p><p>Toothless' captor growled, sounding utterly frustrated and more than a little angry, and the talons gripping him tightened uncomfortably. 'Why bother? We could be done and gone before anyone even noticed us, if this skimpy little rock had any life in the first place.'</p><p>Toothless was inclined to agree with his angry captor's criticism, though he was very much for anything that delayed the inevitable. It didn't make much sense, especially as he knew for a fact no dragons lived anywhere nearby except a solitary Scauldron to the Southwest, far from here.</p><p>There was a rustling in the trees closest to them, and a Nadder stuck his or her head out, startling Toothless and his captor. He flinched once from surprise, then again as a small shock ran through him, and stared pleadingly at the dragon that shouldn't be there.</p><p>'Are we intruding?' the Nadder asked in a high but definitely male voice, hopping out of the trees and staring at the four of them. 'We are travelling, if this is your island we apologize.'</p><p>Toothless winced, expecting the Nadder to be roared down, or struck by lightning, or just ripped limb from limb.</p><p>'We are also travelling,' the older Skrill said casually, his voice dangerous but restrained, as if redirecting the danger away from the one he was speaking to… for the moment. 'Cleaning up some refuse. There does not seem to be anyone living in this area, aside from some humans you would do better to fly well clear of. If you are looking for somewhere to settle, you could do much worse than here…'</p><p>'Or much better,' Toothless' captor added. 'You might go to our nest.'</p><p>'We would like to live alone,' the Nadder said nervously, ducking his head and glancing at Toothless. Toothless tried to struggle, but another, much more powerful surge of energy ran through him, and he fell limp, hoping his defeated expression would convey the same message.</p><p>'That might be for the best,' the older Skrill said. 'You would be doing us a favor by leaving this place. Now.'</p><p>'That favor is happily given,' the Nadder chirped, leaping back into the trees and fleeing on his ungainly two legs, his wings flapping as he retreated. Moments later, two adult Nadders and one smaller one fled, flying off toward the rising sun.</p><p>"I was hoping they would intervene, but you did the right thing in not trying to ask for help," Maour said quietly, reminding Toothless that his brother was listening and watching. He had never left, not since the Skrill had seen the island, though he had been quiet. It was both a comfort and not, because him not speaking meant he didn't have any good ideas on how to get out of this… but at least he was there.</p><p>'Yes,' the older Skrill rumbled mockingly, tossing its head back. 'Come with us. Do you <em>enjoy </em>the prattling of their kind? Or the endless attempts the new catch would make to turn them on us?'</p><p>'It would have made us look good, and they would have been happy at our nest,' the younger Skrill snarled. 'And I am just about fed up with your attitude. You are flying for a thrashing.'</p><p>'The storm must still be clouding your senses,' the older Skrill snorted.</p><p>'It's clouding yours too, then,' Toothless' captor retorted. 'You've been wasting the last of its power throughout this whole flight, and I have not. You will lose.'</p><p>'Let's find out, <em>fledgling!</em>' The older Skrill burst into action, roughly tossing Einn aside and lunging straight for Toothless and his captor. Lightning preceded him, jabbing out like spikes, and Toothless was shocked yet again as they clashed, tumbling off of him. He spasmed for a few moments, wondering whether so many repeated shocks were doing anything permanent to his body, and tried to regain his wits. The erratic flashing and roaring from behind him wasn't doing him any favors…</p><p>But in its own way, it was a great gift all on its own. He began crawling, his legs stiff and numb, and then limping as he could, toward the forest.</p><p>"Get out of there, we'll come back for Einn later," Maour was saying, urging him on. "Don't try to fly, I can feel your pedal hanging loose, it's broken, that's just a waste of time, find somewhere to dig in and play for time."</p><p>The earsplitting roars and blasts of power behind him began to abate, lessening in intensity and cutting off abruptly more often than not, and Toothless stumbled behind the first thin, wind-bowed tree he came across. It wasn't even wide enough to hide him, and he could remember just how tiny the island was from above. He knew the Skrill wouldn't stop hunting him.</p><p>A thousand thoughts flew through his mind, and he struggled to think of a way out, a way to run and hide and actually escape the Skrill, or somehow fight them off… or do something else. Something crazy. The idea was new, it had just come to him, and he didn't have time to explain it to Maour or weigh the options. It was a huge gamble… But not actually a gamble at all, not if he assumed just hiding would not work. Not when they could burn the island down, dig him out of the ashes, and ground him anyway.</p><p>He turned around, noticing the lack of noise behind him, and saw both Skrill, standing side by side, leering at him. The younger one bore a cracked spine, the tip hanging off awkwardly, but aside from that there was no hint that they had been fighting a moment ago.</p><p>'Go on,' the older one hissed, lifting its talons and looking down at them. 'You have ten heartbeats. We can settle our disagreement over a hunt.'</p><p><em>That </em>killed one of his two plans, so Toothless committed to the other. He raised his tail and stared at the younger one. 'I'm not running or fighting. I'm grounding <em>myself</em>.'</p><p>He slammed his tail into the tree, false fin first, and smacked it askew. The second hit knocked the delicate assembly off. There was no time for subtlety, no time to try and make the damage less severe, so he turned in a tight circle to violently rip it off with his teeth before doing the same with the straps still securing his saddle.</p><p>The Skrill watched him, perhaps confused, or amused, or just willing to wait before their sadistic hunt began again. He didn't care, except to make sure he removed all of the saddle and kicked it away before turning to face them. 'I am grounded. I needed that to fly.'</p><p>"It was already broken…" Maour murmured. "Nice one. I really hope this works."</p><p>Aside from his brother's comment - which was thankfully inaudible to the Skrill - nobody responded to his declaration. He felt even more vulnerable without even the false hope of his tailfin and saddle, and had to resist the urge to turn tail and run. This wouldn't work if the younger Skrill felt like hurting him because he was annoying. It might not work even now.</p><p>'I don't like clever usurpers,' the older Skrill snarled. 'It's lying.'</p><p>The younger Skrill leaped forward a heartbeat before the older, talons out, and Toothless hunkered down, refusing to flee or even look away. He rolled with the impact, ending upside-down in the younger Skrill's clutches. The talons dug into his back, and the Skrill snarled down at him.</p><p>They were airborne without a word, and the older Skrill followed them up. He was carried high above the clouds, then let go. He tumbled out into the open air, spread his wings, and instinctively tried to pull out of the fall. It was no good, of course, his tail immediately sabotaged him, and he didn't even try to glide, opting instead to fall helplessly. It was a test, he had to be helpless…</p><p>The wind whistled past him as he fell, and the ocean began to rise up to meet him. He looked up-</p><p>Neither of the Skrill had come down to grab him again.</p><p>"Try to glide!" Maour all but yelled, and Toothless was already flailing about, despite knowing deep down that no matter how much he slowed his descent he would never make it back to land. His wings caught air, and his plummet slowed, but it wasn't controllable, not enough to get him anything except a slower fall. He shrieked helplessly as he finally hit the water, the cold drawing one last noise out of him, and tried to remain afloat. A wave immediately swamped him, getting into his nose and eyes, and he dipped below the surface.</p><p>Talons came down into the water with him, and he was brutally jerked out into the open air. He was bleeding where he had been grabbed, and his chest ached like someone had sat on it while holding a mountain. He hacked up a small fountain of salty sea water, and began to cough.</p><p>'Seems it was not a lie,' his captor and rescuer growled. 'Odd. Though this one <em>did </em>have a human on it, so oddness is to be expected.'</p><p>'I don't care,' the older Skrill thundered, landing on the shore nearby. His talons pressed Einn, who seemed to be unconscious, into the sand once more. 'We're breaking the wings anyway, just to be sure.'</p><p>'No, we're not,' Toothless' captor growled. 'This one is mine, and I say that I would rather not deal with an obnoxiously whiny prisoner all the way back if I do not have to. The missing tailfin is sufficient, you could even just tear one off of yours.'</p><p>'You do what you want, whelp, and on your horns be it if you lose your prey because of it. I do not listen to Usurpers.' The older Skrill leaned down, roughly rolled Einn onto his back, and clamped his teeth onto the old bite-scar on one wing-</p><p>Toothless averted his eyes an instant before the sickening crack and screech, and kept them down through the second crack and howling that followed. He felt incredibly relieved, and even more guilty about being relieved when he had only saved himself. In the back of his head, he felt Maour tuning out his sense of hearing, though sight and feeling remained in use.</p><p>'I am not sparing you that out of pity,' his captor hissed quietly, speaking to him and him alone. 'I am avoiding it because it would be <em>annoying</em>. Do not think for a second that I care whether you suffer or not, usurper.'</p><p>Toothless was of the opinion that if he needed to be told not to think it, then the Skrill wasn't doing a good job of proving it in other ways, but in this case he was grateful not to have his captor's lack of empathy confirmed in a more visceral way.</p><p>'Anger me, and I will hurt you,' his captor continued. 'Try to escape, and I will hurt you badly. Prove your grounded state a lie, and I will rip your wings off before passing you over to him.'</p><p>Toothless nodded slowly. He believed the Skrill would hurt him, though he wasn't sure if they would tear his wings off and risk him bleeding out if they were so careful about keeping him and Einn alive for reasons unknown. The essence of the threat remained the same regardless; he would suffer if he tried anything.</p><p>Which meant that when he did try something, he had to be doubly sure to either succeed, or at least not get caught in the process. Einn's howling was a stark reminder of just what he had narrowly avoided, and what he might still get if he made one wrong move.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Maour clutched his stomach, all too aware of every little swaying motion Von made as she flew. His gut churned with worry and outright disgust, and he was thankful he could keep an eye on what Toothless saw without having to bear the sight of Einn's broken wings. Hearing it had been bad enough; he had no desire to see it.</p><p>"What happened?" Ruffnut demanded. "You went quiet!"</p><p>'Yes, what happened?' Von echoed much more fearfully. 'You said he had convinced them not to hurt him.'</p><p>"They broke his wings," Maour whimpered.</p><p>Von roared angrily and surged forward with a great burst of speed. Maour instinctively hunched down with a cry of surprise. 'I'll hunt them down for what they did to my brother!' Von snarled. 'I'll break <em>their</em> wings! And then I'll–'</p><p>"Not Toothless!" Maour frantically yelped. "Slow down, conserve your strength. They didn't hurt him. He tore off his tailfin to make himself flightless, and they accepted that."</p><p>Von complied, but she glared back at him for getting her riled up, and Maour realized how he had misspoken. 'So, they only broke Einn's wings?'</p><p>"Yes," Maour softly said, rubbing her wing shoulders. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Take some very deep breaths and just glide for a moment to recover."</p><p>Von gave a little irritated growl, but she did just that. Maour tried not to wonder how much that burst of effort had cost her in terms of endurance.</p><p>"They didn't hurt him." He repeated, ignoring the shallow cuts Toothless endured from his rough handling, for the sake of Von's sanity. He took a moment to look through Toothless' eyes to see sand under his face. "But they did break Einn's wings." For the third time, if Eldurhjarta was correct, and it seemed she probably was if Einn had escaped these same captors once before. One break when he was initially caught, another to correct his wings and escape, and now a third.</p><p>"Well, he didn't have a fancy saddle and a preexisting condition," Ruffnut said callously. "Too bad for him. Maybe next time he'll think twice about flying into thunderstorms."</p><p>'We have to catch up to them and somehow free him if he is going to get a next time,' Von rumbled. 'Maour, have they left that island yet? Are they going to spend the day there?'</p><p>Maour could see the sand shifting under Toothless' gaze, and then the shore falling out from under him. He watched long enough to confirm that the Skrill was taking Toothless out over the water, then tentatively checked what Toothless was hearing... A low moaning from Einn in the distance, punctuated by periodic crackles of lightning and the occasional mocking rumble from the other Skrill.</p><p>He came back to his own sense of hearing as soon as he confirmed that nothing useful was being said. "No, it looks like they're going to fly until nightfall." He had heard the Skrill say as much when they landed, but now it was confirmed that they were actually going through with it.</p><p>"Man, these dragons can go for days," Ruffnut said.</p><p>"They talk like this is normal," Maour confirmed. "But they also talked about overextending, so they do not have boundless energy. They will have to sleep sometime."</p><p>'But until then, I will be getting further and further behind,' Von moaned. 'I'm not fast enough.'</p><p>"Yes, you are," Maour assured her. He wasn't quite as confident as he hoped he sounded, but there were reasons to hope she would catch up. The Skrill seemed to be coasting on energy from the thunderstorm, and once that dried up they might be slower, or at least less prone to flying two days and a night without any rest at all. Von would only gain strength as she grew used to carrying weight… and they only needed to get close enough that when the Skrill did rest, she could push through and close the gap all at once. It was possible.</p><p>It was possible, and the alternative was even worse. Going back to the Isle now would be giving the Skrill another two or three day lead, and they might knock Toothless out at any time and cut the only connection anyone had to him. They had to save him before that happened.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>It was a little past midday when Von reached the island. She set down on the shore and immediately went back up into the air, presumably for fish now that she wasn't burdened with them…</p><p>And also possibly to hide her feelings about how long it had taken to reach this place. Maour frowned at nothing in particular as he walked through the edge of the forest. His sister wasn't used to this kind of stress, and it was wearing on her. She hadn't made up any time - if anything, she had lost a little - but that was no reason to get discouraged.</p><p>He checked in with Toothless again, and saw the same view of endless ocean, a Skrill flying up and to the right, and Einn dangling limply. He had quieted down, but every once in a while he would moan pitifully.</p><p>Neither of Maour's siblings was doing well when it came to morale, and he considered it his duty to cheer them both up as much as possible. "Hey, Toothless, check this out," he said, returning to his own senses and almost immediately spotting the saddle that Toothless had torn off.</p><p>He felt Toothless accessing his vision, and leaned over to examine the torn tailfin and connecting rods. "This is broken but there are replacements, the canvas needs to be replaced again but I always bring plenty of spares… It's all fixable." He wasn't even exaggerating; his brother would see through that, and there was no need to in this case. It <em>was </em>all easily replaced, and the bag with all of the spare parts, built into the saddle's back end, was fully intact.</p><p>"Hey, found it?" Ruffnut called out, wandering into view. "I found some blood and a bunch of scuff marks in the sand."</p><p>Maour shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, that's probably where the Skrill fought." Or where Einn had been grounded, but he didn't want to talk about that. "If you need a replacement bandage, I have some here."</p><p>"And a water skin!" Ruffnut crowed, reaching over to snag the full skin. "We needed one of these."</p><p>"There are more lining the interior of both saddles," Maour revealed. "They're empty and serving as padding right now, but if there's any fresh water here we can fill them." All of his little optimizations over the years were coming in handy now, and he was glad he had taken the time to implement them.</p><p>"Things would have been much worse if we hadn't come prepared," he said, voicing his thoughts on the matter. "We have a way to carry more than enough water, when we get to Toothless I'll be able to get him into the air, and…" He reached down and unhooked his scythe from the saddle. "And when we catch up, we'll be ready for them."</p><p>Ruffnut stopped guzzling from the water skin long enough to brandish her makeshift dagger. "Totally ready."</p><p>Maour eyed the haphazard assembly of a shard of rock, a piece of leather, and a stick. He had put it together for her on the off chance that she would need it, but it wasn't exactly his best work. "There's a real knife in the saddlebag," he offered.</p><p>"Upgrade!" Ruffnut yelled, throwing his attempt at a weapon over her shoulder and rushing to the bag.</p><p>'Hey!' Von walked up behind them, fish in her mouth. 'You almost hit me!'</p><p>"Got to work on my aim, then," Ruffnut huffed, ruffling through the saddlebag.</p><p>'Maybe I should work on <em>my</em> aim,' Von growled.</p><p>"Maybe we should <em>not </em>get on each others' nerves," Maour objected, leaping to stand between them. "Ruffnut, don't throw things at Von. Von, don't take offense from the stupid things Ruffnut does and says."</p><p>"Guilty as charged," Ruffnut drawled.</p><p>'Thank you,' Von huffed, turning away. 'Fish. We will eat, and then we will keep flying.'</p><p>"No, we won't," Maour said kindly. "We'll eat, but then Ruffnut and I need to stretch our legs, and you need more rest."</p><p>'I just rested a little while ago,' Von objected.</p><p>"Wasn't that 'little while' near the start of last night?" Ruffnut mused. She was still digging through the saddlebag, though the knife had been near the top, and Maour got the sinking feeling that he was going to find some random little things missing when he next took stock of his supplies.</p><p>"Ruffnut, could you go practice stabbing things?" Maour asked. "On the other side of the island." He really didn't have it in him to be subtle right about now, and she was <em>not </em>helping.</p><p>"<em>Thank</em> you, that is a great idea." Ruffnut leaped up, waved his work knife around, and jogged off into the forest.</p><p>'Do we have to give her something sharp and dangerous?' Von asked forlornly. 'She is going to be sitting on my back for the foreseeable future. What if she decides she's in charge and puts the knife to your throat?'</p><p>"Ruffnut is... chaotic, but she's not stupid," Maour sighed. "She's on our side, she's not going to do that. We're all just tired and a little cranky because of it. Don't take any of this too hard."</p><p>'How can I not?' Von whined, pressing her head to his chest. 'That could have been my brother,' she huffed, gesturing with a flick of her nose to where Einn's blood had soaked into the sand from his broken wings, 'and it would have been my failure. He still could be hurt, and I need to catch up but these <em>stupid </em>Skrill can fly forever and I have to keep stopping to rest…'</p><p>"It's okay, it's not that bad," Maour said quietly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Really, it's not. We can keep after him, we can do this. You can do this. Just do not give up hope."</p><p>'Everyone is counting on me and I cannot live up to it,' Von whined. 'I want to, but I can't. You and Toothless and even Mom are all used to life-or-death stakes and being relied on, I'm not. I just want it to be over but it isn't and won't be because I'm slow and tired.'</p><p>"It's okay," Maour repeated. He could feel Toothless watching, and wished his brother was able to speak and pass on some direct encouragement. His words would carry more weight, but it wasn't worth a shock.. "I know he doesn't want you to be mad at yourself for things out of your control. None of this is your fault. We <em>are </em>relying on you, but nobody is going to blame you no matter what happens."</p><p>'It does not feel like that,' Von sniffed.</p><p>Maour crouched, and Von lowered herself to the ground with him. "We don't blame hatchlings for not sleeping through the night," he said as he awkwardly sat down. "Why not?"</p><p>'They can't help waking up,' Von huffed. 'I know, but I could be faster if I was stronger.'</p><p>"Which is out of your control as of now," Maour said, carefully skirting around the idea of training to fly while bearing riders, like how Eldurburg's raw flight strength was unsurpassed after having carried Fishlegs for so long. In hindsight, it would have helped, but it had not been obvious back when such a thing could have been done. Nobody, including him, had expected anything like this to happen.</p><p>'That's… not much better.' Von sighed and let her wing shoulders slump, laying her head across Maour's lap. 'You will not blame me?'</p><p>"I don't blame anyone for this," Maour said firmly. Maybe Einn, a little, because he had done something stupid and intentionally endangered himself. Nobody else. 'I just want us all to do the best we can. For you, right now, that means resting when you need it and flying as well as you can, nothing more. Certainly not blaming yourself, even if we cannot close the gap." He was beginning to suspect that Toothless was going to have to do something on his end to slow the Skrill if they kept travelling at this rate, but Von didn't need to worry about that yet.</p><p>'Okay… I can do that…' Von sighed loudly and shifted her head off his lap. 'You will wake me?'</p><p>"When it is time to go," he agreed.</p><p>'Good. Knock me out.'</p><p>Maour reached a hand out, then paused. "You're stronger than you realize," he said, patting her forehead, "I speak for myself and Toothless when I say I couldn't ask for a better sister. I know Mom would be so proud of you."</p><p>Von swallowed. 'I… I'm…' she closed her eyes and gave his arm a little lick. 'Thanks, brother.'</p><p>Maour reached a hand underneath her chin, then paused, waiting for her to nod her approval before scratching her knock-out spot to send her to sleep.</p><p>Soon, he would go and find Ruffnut, and make sure she didn't harbor any real resentment at being told to make herself scarce. But for the moment, he just wanted to sit with his sister, check in with his brother, and relax.</p><p>This chase promised to be one of balancing fears, irritations, and stress all together, lest someone fall apart, to say nothing of what they would do when they actually caught up with Toothless. He was going to have to make sure everyone remained calm and hopeful…</p><p>And he had to do the same for himself, because nobody around was in a position to reassure <em>him</em>. Even though a part of him wanted to freak out, to suggest that Toothless try accessing his buried powers to control the Skrill as they suspected might be possible, or any number of outlandish plans that were unlikely to succeed and almost certain to scare Von or weaken Toothless' trust in him.</p><p>Von had to fly as best she could. Toothless had to wait, listen, and watch for an opportunity, whatever form that might take. Ruffnut had to not cause trouble and maybe pitch in with some out-of-the-box suggestions on occasion.</p><p>He had to hold them all together, coordinate, and use what he had to save his brother.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Ruffnut held Maour's knife by the tip, waving it around lazily. Her butt was numb despite Maour's attempts to make the back end of Von's saddle more comfortable, and if she scooted forward she would be pressed against Maour's back, which was just as uncomfortable thanks to the weird, bulky mass set into his armor.</p><p>She wished she had brought her helmet; Maour was outfitted for a war, and here she was with nothing but a work knife and an empty space in the back of her head.</p><p>Thinking about her lack of connection to Boom made her want to stab something. It was bad luck, a fairly reasonable punishment enacted at the worst possible time, and now she was further from her dragon friends and brother than ever before, caught on a mission she couldn't leave.</p><p>It wouldn't be so bad if it was <em>just </em>Tuffnut she was missing; absence made the guard lower for when she returned. But not having a connection to Boom was more constant, a lack she kept turning to whenever she was bored, only to find it empty. Not having Tuffnut was missing a partner in crime, but not having Boom was like missing an eye, too. It was wearing on her, more with every passing day.</p><p>"Hey," she said, breaking the uneasy silence. "Maour, run by me what you need to make a link."</p><p>Maour didn't respond, so she poked the back of his head with the hilt of her knife.</p><p>"What?" he asked.</p><p>"The link," she repeated. "What needs to be there to make it?" She hadn't paid much attention back when they first put it into place, and it had only needed to be redone a few times, maybe once a year since then. Maour and Toothless had probably never broken theirs in the eight years since they made it, but being Thorstons and Mykurs had occupational hazards.</p><p>"Eye contact and physical contact," Maour said. "And a Night Fury who knows what to do. Why?"</p><p>"Just wondering," she said idly, setting Maour's knife on her lap and leaning back on her hands.</p><p>'Hands on the saddle,' Von said curtly.</p><p>'Why? I could give you a scale rub.' Ruffnut scrunched her fingers to emphasize her point. She would do it, too; anything to get away from the boredom.</p><p>'Because you are messing with my sub-fins and threatening to crash us into the ocean,' Von growled. 'Stop that!'</p><p>Ruffnut twisted around and saw that her hands were nowhere near the little fins jutting out by Von's rear end, but she withdrew her hands anyway. Von was nowhere near as fun as Boom on a normal day, and this wasn't a normal day. Things were already tense without getting her ride angry this early in the night's flight.</p><p>She tried to reach out to Boom, intending some witty comment, and once again noticed the absence in the back of her head. It was a frustrating thing, like an itch she couldn't scratch.</p><p>"Has anyone ever tried to bring it back without touch or eye contact?" she asked hopefully. "That seems like something Fishlegs would try just to check."</p><p>"I don't know of anything like that," Maour said doubtfully. "It shouldn't be possible, else the Queen would have done it for Toothless."</p><p>"I'm going to try it anyway," Ruffnut declared. Maybe nobody had been driven crazy with boredom for an entire day with nothing else to do but try the impossible just for fun. She could be persistent.</p><p>'If you could reconnect with Boom, we could call for help without having to go back,' Von said hopefully.</p><p>"That wouldn't mean we catch up to Toothless any faster," Ruffnut reasoned. "You still have to fly fast enough."</p><p>Maour turned around just to glare at her, and Von huffed sadly. Ruffnut shrugged her shoulders at him. What did he expect? She called it like she saw it, and as best she could tell, they were keeping up, at <em>best</em>. At worst, the Skrill were pulling a little further ahead with every passing night. They were in for a long trip at this rate…</p><p>Which just made her feel the loss of her brother and her best friend all the more. She crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and leaned back. There was a little empty patch in the back of her mind, something that shouldn't be, and she wanted it fixed. It was a little thing compared to everything else going on, but it wasn't little to her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Toothless knew what it felt like to be <em>truly </em>helpless, unable to so much as twitch under his own will. His current situation wasn't exactly that, but it felt far too similar for his comfort. He <em>could </em>move, nothing was controlling his mind… but nothing he did would set him free, not without also dooming him in some way.</p><p>The massive talons clutching him were strong, and biting them wouldn't cause any real damage, but he could try squirming out. The Skrill carrying him was not invincible, nothing was stopping him from doing his best to open it from chest to tail with his claws. Nothing except that it probably wouldn't work, getting him shocked and possibly dropped, and if it <em>did </em>work, he was still out over an endless ocean with no allies and nothing to stop him from drowning with the body of his captor.</p><p>Plans that ended in his own death weren't acceptable, he didn't need Maour to tell him that. That would be letting the Skrill <em>win</em>, his own inherent sense of self-preservation aside. Just because these weren't <em>willing </em>to kill him didn't mean their desires were any different. Dying would be giving them what they hoped for.</p><p>He sighed, quietly so as to not be heard by his captor, and closed his eyes, turning the problem over in his mind, seeking new ways to approach it. There had to be <em>some </em>way to turn two grounded Night Furies being carried to destinations unknown by two large Skrill into a successful escape. He just couldn't see it, despite entire days dedicated to thinking about it.</p><p>Each day began with the Skrill throwing fish at him and Einn, and snatching them up the moment they finished eating. Being picked up was always accompanied by a shock, just to ensure he didn't struggle, and the Skrill were more than capable of shrugging off a blast they were expecting, so he had no chance of shooting them out of the sky then.</p><p>After that, the day would go by, painfully slow and boring. No speaking was allowed, and nothing Toothless could think of would elicit anything from his captors but a shock. The way he was being held, he couldn't fire on either of the Skrill, and even if he could, it wouldn't do any good.</p><p>The evening, or sometimes the middle of the night if the Skrill were feeling competitive, when they were focused on one-upping one another was the best time for him to try something, but that only meant it was slightly less hopeless than any other time. The Skrill were careful to always put him and Einn somewhere they could never leave on their own, and to sleep somewhere sufficiently far away that they couldn't be killed or knocked off with a blast.</p><p>Night was a chance to talk freely to Maour, and to Einn for that matter, but neither was very useful. Einn refused to respond, acting as if he was asleep with his eyes open, and Maour wasn't present and thus couldn't actually do anything to help except talk, which he did enough of in the day.</p><p>In order to do something to the Skrill, Toothless would need to miraculously regrow his tailfin, or somehow heal Einn's wings and utter apathy. Even then, he didn't think it would be enough; he suspected the Skrill slept in shifts. It was what he would have done, just to be safe. There were other dragons in the world aside from the four of them, though they'd chanced across none aside from the single Nadder family right at the start of the chase.</p><p>He sighed to himself, once again coming to the conclusion that the Skrill had thought of everything. It wasn't hard, when his options were so limited. There were no outside factors so far, nothing new he could take advantage of. The only advantage he had was currently at least a day behind, trying her best but just not capable of keeping up.</p><p>A quick check to his brother's senses confirmed that Maour was still asleep, his vision an all-encompassing blackness that was only reassuring because being able to access it at all meant he was still alive. Unable to talk at the moment, but alive and well.</p><p>'Wake yours,' Einn's captor said loudly.</p><p>Toothless immediately opened his eyes and squirmed in the grip of his captor, ensuring that the Skrill knew a shock wouldn't be necessary. The one small mercy of this whole, miserable trip was that he was being carried by the less bloodthirsty Skrill. So long as he did as told, he could avoid being shocked altogether, aside from the apparently unconscious little jolts that ran down the Skrill's talons on occasion.</p><p>'Sleeping?' his captor asked neutrally.</p><p>'Closed eyes,' the other Skrill growled. 'I don't have that problem with <em>mine</em>.'</p><p>'Yours barely <em>lives</em>,' the younger Skrill growled. 'That is like bragging that your fish does not flop because it is dead.'</p><p>'Dead is better,' the older Skrill said confidently.</p><p>Toothless worried that Einn might be in agreement with that statement; he certainly hadn't made <em>any </em>attempt to escape, or kill his captors, or anything aside from the bare minimums needed to continue existing. They had been captives together for days - he didn't remember the exact number, more than ten as that was where he had stopped counting - and yet hadn't exchanged so much as a meaningful look, let alone words or anything passing for communication.</p><p>'For them, not for us,' his captor - they had never used names for each other, so Toothless didn't even know if they <em>had </em>any - said. 'I see an island up ahead. Stop or keep going?'</p><p>'Keep going,' the older Skrill said dismissively. 'It is not even fully dark yet. I want to fly until midnight.'</p><p>'Done,' the younger agreed. Toothless would have slumped, were he not already as limp as he could get. The Skrill had proven, over and over again in this long pursuit, that they could match or even exceed Von's speed. What was worse, they had a habit of one-upping each other when it came to endurance, and every time one of them pushed to keep going like had just happened, Von and the others lost ground.</p><p>If something was going to be done, it would be up to him to make it happen.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>"They're both flightless," Ruffnut reasoned, drawing her words out to waste time. "If we attack while the Skrill are carrying them, the Skrill will just drop them and we <em>lose</em> no matter what else happens."</p><p>'I know that,' Von grumbled. 'I was not proposing we attack in the middle of nowhere.'</p><p>"No, but you were thinking it," Ruffnut said confidently, though she didn't actually believe Von <em>was </em>contemplating such a stupid move. Von was no Myrkur, the tricky side of her mind - Tuffnut insisted the mind had <em>sides </em>for some incomprehensible reason, she missed Tuffnut enough to agree with him - was rusted and dusty.</p><p>Ruffnut, lacking anything else to do, had decided she was going to knock Von into shape with words alone. "But have you thought about what else that means?"</p><p>'It means we cannot attack while they are carrying my brother and Einn,' Von huffed. 'What <em>else </em>could it possibly mean?'</p><p>"Think about it," Ruffnut said, leaning back to stare at the boring, cloudy sky. Von wasn't even adventurous enough to fly above the clouds, despite having Maour to tell her if she overshot or otherwise lost her way. It wasn't like they were close enough to catch up at a moment's notice, anyway. "What <em>else </em>could it mean? What is wrong with that thinking?"</p><p>A long moment of silence, maybe twenty beats of Von's wings, passed between them. Maour was asleep in the saddle right in front of Ruffnut, so she wasn't surprised he wasn't answering her challenge, but she had expected Von to get it quickly enough.</p><p>'I don't get it,' Von finally said.</p><p>"Ugh, okay, fine," Ruffnut groaned, resisting the urge to stick her hands behind her and lean back. Von didn't like that, and antagonizing her only conversational partner didn't seem like a fun idea. "Do you want me to spell it out for you?"</p><p>'Yes, do that,' Von growled. 'So you can prove you are not just asking vague questions and then claiming whatever I think of as your original idea.'</p><p>"That only works on someone who thinks I know what I'm talking about," Ruffnut said dismissively. "Okay, think like a trickster."</p><p>'I am obnoxious, dreaded by all who like peace and quiet, and I have an irrational urge to seek out a like-minded sibling,' Von drawled.</p><p>"Yes, but not that," Ruffnut chided, a smile crossing her face. She would <em>rather </em>have Von sniping at her than whining; she was going through a low-stakes conflict withdrawal. That was how Boom would have put it if she was trying to mock Berg, anyway…</p><p>'Explain,' Von demanded.</p><p>"This is like trying to steal from someone you don't know when you want to annoy them, not actually profit off of it," Ruffnut elaborated, sensing that she was pushing Von's patience a bit too far. "You have to know what they value, and what they'll happily drop if it means catching you faster. One way to figure that out is to watch how they handle what they're carrying."</p><p>'And in this case, we are looking at how the Skrill carry my brother?' Von asked. Ruffnut could all but hear the tentative hope in her voice; she really needed to work on hiding her emotions better. Anyone looking to lead her on could easily find out where to push and pull.</p><p>"Yes, exactly," Ruffnut said. "Skrill are destructive marks, they don't really <em>keep </em>things. We know they <em>should </em>have gutted Einn weeks ago." She left Toothless out of it for Von's sake, and for her own; Maour was a little too vehement in keeping Von's spirits up. He probably would have cut this conversation off by now if he was awake.</p><p>'And since they have not…' Von trailed off.</p><p>"That means they value Toothless and Einn," Ruffnut said. "Meaning they wouldn't drop them at the first sign of trouble. Attacking with nowhere safe to leave them might work."</p><p>'I am not even going to ask why you spent so long beating around the bush about that,' Von groaned. 'I see your point, but I do not agree. Just because they have not killed <em>yet </em>does not mean they would mind doing it. It's too risky to take that chance.'</p><p>"Just making the point," Ruffnut assured her.</p><p>'Was the real point that a thousand words where twenty could work is needlessly annoying?' Von asked.</p><p>"Nah, the more words the better," Ruffnut shot back.</p><p>"The better to wake me with," Maour said, leaning forward and stretching his arms out. He had just woken up, but Ruffnut could tell he was already tense. She resisted the urge to prod at his back; Tuffnut would relax by knocking her out of the saddle, but he wasn't Tuffnut and Von might not be able to catch her.</p><p>"They're headed toward an island," he said after a drawn-out yawn. "Arguing about whether it's late enough to stop for the night. Sounds like they will."</p><p>'There are some sea stacks out over there,' Von huffed, briefly banking to the right to indicate where she was looking.</p><p>"I see them… I recognize them, too," Maour said solemnly.</p><p>'How long?' Von asked quietly.</p><p>'Yesterday, early morning,' Maour replied.</p><p>Ruffnut groaned as loudly as she could; the other two might be hiding their disappointment, but she had no such inclination. That meant Von was two days and a night behind the Skrill now. The gap between them was only getting bigger, and they had long since passed into unknown territory, far to the North of all the islands she knew. North of everything Maour knew too, which was a much more impressive accomplishment given he spent time staring at maps.</p><p>There was no turning back, though. They would never be able to find Toothless again if they lost the trail that badly. He could give Maour a direction of travel, and what his surroundings looked like, but that was only useful while they were on the move.</p><p>Such thoughts had run through her mind a hundred times before, and they were no more comforting this time around than the last. She was seriously considering asking to be abandoned at the next good island they came across, if there was one. Maybe Von could catch up with less of a burden to carry. At this point, she would be willing to take one for the team… so long as taking one for the team also meant she got to do something other than sit in a saddle and lose a chase day in and day out.</p><p>"They've seen something on the island," Maour said suddenly. "A village."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>'That makes this annoying,' Toothless' captor growled. He had gone dark, for lack of a better term, all of the little snaps and crackles of excess lightning disappearing. Toothless hadn't even known that was something the Skrill could <em>control </em>prior to now.</p><p>'What, that?' the older Skrill asked, eyeing the flickering lights and unnatural shapes dotting one side of the long, flat island. It was too far still to see much, though that was changing with every beat of the Skrills' wings. 'Just raze it to the ground.'</p><p>'Who will guard the Usurpers while we do that?' the younger asked. 'We both need to be there for it to be easy.'</p><p>'I might like a challenge,' the older one said casually 'But I have a better idea. These worthless excuses for Usurpers are flightless, and this island lacks any sort of cover. Drop them at one side, destroy the other before they can do anything, and then tomorrow we can enjoy tracking them down and capturing them all over again before we leave.'</p><p>"That could be an opportunity," Maour said hopefully. "Find somewhere to hide and stall for time."</p><p>Toothless had just been thinking the same thing; he blinked twice in rapid succession, the agreed-upon signal for 'yes'. Maour had worked out a whole collection of ways for him to communicate soundlessly. Talking was still punishable by being shocked, not to mention the dangers of discussing his plans for escape within earshot of his captors, however one-sided the conversation would seem to them.</p><p>'I like that plan,' the younger Skrill said, 'but it sounds to me like you just want an excuse to switch captives.'</p><p>'We're more than halfway home,' the older Skrill shot back. 'I want to play with yours before we get there.'</p><p>'If you catch him before I do, then <em>fine</em>,' the younger hummed. 'But if I get him first, you will stop bothering me about it.'</p><p>'Deal,' the Skrill buzzed eagerly.</p><p>Toothless mentally amended his plan; he was going to stall for as much time as possible, and then run right into the clutches of the younger Skrill if at all possible. He pitied Einn, constantly subjected to random little shocks whenever his captor grew bored, but not enough to switch out with him and bear whatever the Skrill would do to someone he considered strong enough to take it.</p><p>Not that the younger Skrill was that much better than the elder; Toothless knew all too well that he was avoiding pain only because he was cooperating. He didn't doubt for a moment that either would slit his throat if they felt free to do so. The relative kindness of his captor was just a <em>lack </em>of sadistic tendencies, nothing more.</p><p>And he wasn't even sure of <em>that</em>, since both Skrill seemed eager to go slaughter an entire human village. It was a small one, maybe two dozen buildings and a tiny dock, so small he felt confident in saying he could have taken it himself if given reason to do so. He had no idea why the Skrill felt it would be dangerous for only one of them to attack. He didn't know why they were intending to attack at all, actually, aside from the obvious motivators of boredom and a general dislike of humans.</p><p>"I think I see some cliffs," Maour observed as the Skrill flew around to approach the island from the far side. "Try looking for caves there once they let you go."</p><p>Toothless didn't see any caves, but he supposed that was the point. If they were visible from the air, it wouldn't take much time to find him. He needed to hide out for at <em>least </em>a few days, if Von was going to have any chance of catching up.</p><p>Then again, the Skrill were still suspicious about his tail, so they might fly off, assuming he had managed to flee the island. It would be a safe bet that Einn would be incapable of saying anything to them. However, that might put Von in danger, but he could tell her which way they had gone, and she could avoid them and come to the island, where Maour could fix his tail and he could <em>actually </em>fly away.</p><p>He hadn't let himself give up hope, never that, but having an actual, workable plan made him feel great. Even more so when that plan relied on him, not on his sister pushing herself day in and day out to no avail. Maour was doing his best to keep everyone hopeful and motivated, but he could almost see the weight of responsibility slowly crushing her-</p><p>The sudden lack of talons holding him up occurred to Toothless a heartbeat before he hit the ground and skidded to a stop in the thankfully soft, springy grass of an untended field. Einn hit the ground beside him like a rock, not moving at all.</p><p>'No food tonight,' the older Skrill hummed, landing in front of them. There was a mean look in his eyes, meaner than usual. 'No leaving the island.'</p><p>The younger Skrill landed next to him. 'I just thought of something,' he said. 'They might fire on us while we're getting rid of the humans.'</p><p>'What?' the older hissed. 'You thought we were leaving them awake for the actual attack?'</p><p>Toothless had no time to react to the swift lunge. A talon smacked down on his head, knocking him to the ground. He thrashed wildly, madly desperate to avoid being knocked unconscious, to preserve his precious link with Maour, but something slammed into his head and all went black.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>A heavy, thundering headache dragged Toothless back to reality. He pawed feebly at the air above his head, trying in vain to stop whoever was thumping his head over and over again… and then slowly realized that nothing was there, the pain was entirely internal.</p><p>He opened his eyes, saw double, and closed them again, holding back the urge to throw up. The Skrill fed him and Einn whatever they could get from shocking the water once or twice, and while that usually meant he wasn't going hungry, it wasn't consistent enough for him to be wasting food.</p><p>He lay in the grass and dirt for a time, waiting for his headache to reside. It was cold out, far colder than he was used to, and while he could hear flames crackling in the distance, they weren't close enough to warm him.</p><p>He knew what the flames had to be, just as he knew why his link to Maour was gone; thinking about it was beyond him at first, but once the pain began to subside…</p><p>This island was the only place his siblings would know to look for him. They were at least a day away, probably more like two if Von didn't fly herself halfway to death to reach him sooner. If he wasn't here when they arrived, they wouldn't know where to go next, and while the Skrill were keeping to a mostly straight course, it wasn't straight enough for Von to follow without landmarks. Landmarks he couldn't provide anymore.</p><p>He forced himself up and his eyes open, weathering the renewed nausea and blurry afterimages that came whenever he looked around. There was, as he had suspected, a roaring bonfire where the small village had been. Einn was still on the ground beside him. The Skrill were nowhere in sight.</p><p>They would be coming for him in the morning. They were clever enough to sleep out of reach of him up until now, usually putting him and Einn on sea stacks far from them, and he doubted they would fail to do as much this time. Finding them and killing them was out of the question.</p><p>Hiding wasn't, though. He could still hide, and maybe ambush them as they came for him…</p><p>He looked over at Einn again, but the other Fury was still unconscious. It might have been possible to wake him, but Toothless couldn't think of anything Einn could <em>do </em>to help him. His wings were disturbingly crooked, and there was no fight left in him. At best, if he were awake he could hide somewhere else and drag out the search a little longer, but Toothless doubted Einn would be willing to do that. There was even some logic to giving up and waiting for the Skrill to come back; they were grounded, and as far as Einn knew that meant they were doomed no matter what they did.</p><p>Toothless left the other Fury where he lay, and turned toward the closest shore. The island was elevated, cliffs sticking out of the sea with grassy plains on top, so when he reached the edge there was no shoreline, just an end to the stone and a drop to the ocean below. He peered over, digging his claws into the cracks in the stone for what little leverage he could get, but the cliff face was sheer and unbroken for as far as he could see, which wasn't all that far.</p><p>He continued along the edge of the stone, occasionally looking down to check for caves. As he walked, the smoky pyre of what had been a village continued to obscure part of the sky. Following the edge of the island was leading him closer, and would soon lead him into the village itself.</p><p>He did his best to ignore what that meant and concentrate on looking for caves. It really did take all of his concentration; his head was still spinning, and the blurry afterimages had transitioned to <em>everything </em>looking blurry instead, making it harder to be sure he wasn't missing something. He was pretty sure that if Eldurhjarta could have seen him, she would have forced him to lay down and do nothing for a long while.</p><p>Between looking for caves and trying not to fall over, or throw up, or miss one in his misery, he didn't realize he had made his way into the village until he had to step over a scorched chunk of wood. Even then, it took him a few long moments to actually determine what that meant and look up.</p><p>The fires had all gone out in the time it took him to circle around half the island; only a few smoldering embers remained. Wreckage was everywhere, not a single building left standing, and the smells wafting along in the breeze were enough to ensure he didn't look that closely at what <em>else </em>was everywhere. He didn't know how the Skrill had attacked, what methods they had used to kill, and he didn't want to know.</p><p>There were no caves in the cliffs by the former village, not even by the docks, and as he continued onward, none on the other side of the island. His headache hadn't gone away, and though it <em>felt </em>like he had just woken a short time ago, the night was growing old. The dizziness wasn't going away either, and he was fairly certain his odd sense of time was also the fault of his head injury.</p><p>Einn was his landmark, the point where he had started looking, so when he reached the other Fury, he stopped and sat down.</p><p>'No caves,' he huffed to himself. Usually, he spent part of each night talking to Maour, though there hadn't been much to say, but now he couldn't even do that. 'A flat island with nowhere to go…'</p><p>Nowhere except the village, with its smoldering wreckage.</p><p>He began the trek back to the village, this time cutting across the middle of the island. The moon was definitely on its way down, and he was running out of time to figure out what he was doing.</p><p>He needed to stall for time. That meant hiding. Hiding was the <em>safe </em>option, anyway; the Skrill intended to hunt him down for fun, so they wouldn't really care if he hid. The better he hid, the smaller the gap between the Skrill and Von… but that gap wasn't going to matter once he was taken away from this island, because the next time the Skrill changed direction, nobody would know.</p><p>In a perfect world, he would kill the Skrill and just wait here for Von to catch up, but that was difficult to the point of being foolish to attempt. He had been told that, outside of a thunderstorm, a Night Fury could beat a Skrill, but he highly doubted that such odds applied to a grounded Night Fury against two Skrill. Especially these Skrill, who were bigger than normal and had caught him and Einn with such ease. They seemed <em>experienced</em>, or at least the older one did. He wouldn't catch them with obvious tricks.</p><p>The rubble of the village outskirts caught his eye. Specifically, the sharp, broken pieces of wood, and the discarded weapons lying around.</p><p>He wished, now more than ever, that he still had Maour in his head. The idea that had just come to mind would be tricky enough to pull off <em>with </em>his brother's advice. Toothless had seen a few rudimentary traps for dragons before, but he had never <em>built </em>one, and he didn't have much time.</p><p>It was still a better idea than just hiding, so he decided to try it anyway.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>The sun shone on Toothless' right eye, but not his left. He resisted the urge to move his head out of the beam; any movement could give him away.</p><p>'Come out, you cowardly sack of black scales,' the older Skrill called out in a sing-song voice that made Toothless want to bite him even more. Something cut off the single beam of sunlight on his face, though he wasn't in a position to see what. A moment later it was back again.</p><p>'I'm telling you, he's sitting in the water somewhere,' the younger Skrill called down from above.</p><p>'Did you <em>find </em>a Usurper in the waves?' the older one snarled, his voice crackling. 'No? Then you're wrong!'</p><p>'I <em>will </em>find him, just you wait and see,' the younger shot back.</p><p>The sound of lightning and then exploding wood, a distinct crackle followed by many smaller thumps as shards rained down, followed that retort. Toothless hunched closer to the ground.</p><p>He was beginning to regret his hiding place. Digging into the middle of one of the collapsed huts had seemed like a great idea at the time, and he was so far from the outside world that light barely reached him, but above him was a hut's worth of broken wood, supported by a few mostly-intact beams, but otherwise just sitting there, precariously positioned over his head.</p><p>He was well-hidden, but that wouldn't matter so much if a Skrill decided to blast his pile and accidentally got him crushed. Hopefully they would give up before then. Or hurt themselves in his less than stellar attempts at making traps out of the <em>other </em>piles of wood lying around. He just didn't have the hands necessary to make fine adjustments, and his attempts had mostly consisted of making other piles as unstable as possible without making it obvious.</p><p>One had collapsed almost immediately after the Skrill came down to begin searching. He had made three, so there were still two standing. He didn't know how long he had been hiding, long enough for the Skrill to get frustrated. Probably long enough for all of the wreckage to be searched once, meaning his traps might not have collapsed when they were supposed to.</p><p>It had been a long shot, one he wasn't surprised to see fail. He was far more invested in his original plan, hiding until they assumed he had somehow flown away. That was still an option; if the sadistic, older Skrill pronounced the wreckage clear, then the younger one probably wouldn't argue.</p><p>A sinister rumbling began somewhere nearby, the Skrill growling and humming by turn, prowling around close by. The noise rose and fell randomly, making it impossible to tell how close the Skrill was at any given moment, just that he was still around.</p><p>'I cannot smell you,' the Skrill announced. 'Blood and dust and lightning overwhelm the stench of your cowardice, and I was never one for smells in the first place. But I know you are here. Hiding in the ruins of others who would have opposed us, if given the chance."</p><p>Something shifted above Toothless, moved by the wind or by chance. He didn't move a muscle, even when a few splinters bounced off his back.</p><p>'That is always the way of your kind, though,' the Skrill continued. 'Leading the charge and then cowering behind the mess you make. We would not be here if one of your kind had not tried to escape.'</p><p>Toothless thought he could hear the crackling of lightning on the Skrill now. It sounded like he was getting closer.</p><p>'<em>I </em>would not be here,' the Skrill continued. 'Stuck searching for a cripple who would die here anyway if I left. Pathetic.'</p><p>It was extremely obvious that the Skrill was trying to provoke him, and Toothless had no intention of giving himself away… but it still bothered him. Partially because he was being insulted, but also because he had the nagging feeling the Skrill wasn't <em>just </em>talking about their current situation.</p><p>Maour had always wanted to understand why Skrill hated Night Furies, and only the Skrill knew. It was entirely possible this one was dropping hints that Maour, or Eldurberg, or any of the Eldurs would want to hear. But instead, Toothless was the one hearing, and likely forgetting, any cryptic clues the Skrill gave out-</p><p>Wood smacked against wood, and there was a loud crash, followed by the telltale sound of lightning striking something. Not Toothless' pile of wreckage, as he was still alive and unharmed. One of the others, maybe one of the two he had rigged finally giving out.</p><p>'I <em>know </em>you're here!' the Skrill screeched angrily. 'I'll shatter everything big enough to hide you before I leave!'</p><p>Which, Toothless reflected as he huddled under a large pile of wooden wreckage, was something he <em>really </em>should have thought of. It would take some serious effort to disperse the massive pile of scorched wood above him, but if the Skrill was going to go to that effort <em>anyway</em>, for the entire village, then he was in trouble.</p><p>'Did you find him?' the other Skrill asked eagerly, likely having flown in from above. Toothless was mostly guessing about that; for all he knew, the other Skrill had never left, instead electing to remain silent throughout the older one's rant.</p><p>'The worm's hiding somewhere close,' the older Skrill snarled. 'Start blowing these piles apart.'</p><p>'I don't want to waste my energy,' the younger one objected. 'We were sent out to get the one back, and we still have that one. This one will be stuck here if we leave-'</p><p>'Stuck here?' the older Skrill said slowly. 'Yes. Stuck. On an island with nothing but some ruins. No fresh water, a few dozen prey that will not last long…'</p><p>Toothless was fairly certain he had seen the remains of a few wells dotted around the ruined village, but the Skrill probably didn't know what they were for. Water would be a hassle, but it was available.</p><p>'Their kind do not swim,' the younger said casually. 'You proved that.'</p><p>'Yes, I did,' the older rumbled. 'Okay, you've convinced me. Grab the one we came for, and let's go.'</p><p>Toothless held his breath, unable to believe his luck was turning around so quickly. Sure, they thought they were leaving him to die, it made <em>sense</em>, but he still couldn't believe it. Even when he heard two sets of wings disappearing into the distance. He didn't move.</p><p>TIme passed, and he lingered under the wreckage, unwilling to leave. It was almost impossible for him to tell how long he spent waiting, just to be sure the Skrill had left; the sun moved, and there was no longer a beam of light on one of his eyes, but that was his only indication. He waited.</p><p>Long enough for them to pick up Einn. Long enough for them to fly to the horizon, or so he hoped. To leave, to go so far there was no chance they would change their minds and turn around.</p><p>If it weren't for the danger his hiding place posed, and his growing thirst, he would have tried to stay hidden through the night and next day, until his siblings caught up. As it was, he lasted until what he thought had to be dusk, then began the laborious process of pushing out into the open, shifting piles of ash and half-burned planks with his paws. His head was pounding yet again; the headache from being knocked out had been replaced by a headache brought on by thirst.</p><p>The fading light of the setting sun was bright to his eyes, and he blinked a few times as he crawled out into the open-</p><p>Talons stabbed into the ground on either side of him and a familiar weight slammed him into the ground, then yanked him up again. A shock ran through him as he thrashed, but he didn't care, he had gotten <em>away</em>, they were supposed to be gone!</p><p>'You lasted longer than I thought you would,' the younger male said from above, his voice cold. 'Pointless, we were never going to leave, but still. Don't do it again.'</p><p>A much stronger shock ran through Toothless, strong enough that he was seeing stars and cramping up in every possible place. It didn't <em>end, </em>going on and on while he shrieked until his throat was raw.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Einn was surprised he could still feel disappointment, but there was no mistaking the bitter feeling that came across him when he saw Angry returning with the other Fury's limp form in his talons.</p><p>He had known better than to hope, but apparently knowing better wasn't enough to stop himself when both Skrill had flown away with him, but not the other. They had talked about luring the other captive out by making him think they had left, but with every change of which one was watching, it had seemed more and more likely that the plan wouldn't work.</p><p>He had woken up well after sunrise; for all he knew, the other Fury could really have flown away in the night. Flying without a tailfin seemed like it would be hard - not as hard as flying without working <em>wings</em>, but not impossible. He had never tried, would never try… but he had hoped.</p><p>He had been stupid to hope. All it got him was more disappointment, when he was trying not to feel anything. No hope, no fear, no regret…</p><p>Definitely no regret. Even now, he didn't <em>regret </em>flying out into the thunderstorm when he thought of the kind people he had saved by doing so. The Skrill didn't even think he and the other - Kappi, if he remembered right, but he probably didn't - had lived <em>on </em>the island, they didn't know there <em>was </em>an island there. That was the best safety he could possibly offer Hjarta and all the rest.</p><p>All but this one, Kappi. He was the <em>other </em>sacrifice. If Einn could have spoken, he might have told him that. Give the younger male a reason to feel proud of himself. He would need it, with what they were going back to. With all the time in the world to think, something to hold on to was invaluable.</p><p>Something to hold on to… Einn shivered, earning himself a shock, administered so nonchalantly he was certain Sadistic had done it out of reflex and not actually noticed his movement.</p><p>He was being taken back. He would soon be seeing his son again. Facing the cold, the disappointment, the hurt, the <em>anger</em>. And he would deserve it. He had ruined his son's life, then failed to save himself, and failed to save his son, and failed to save this other young male with his whole life ahead of him. And nobody could ever know who he <em>had </em>saved, for fear of the Skrill shocking it out of them later.</p><p>Einn stared down at the water, trying not to think any longer. He was good at not thinking, at just doing as he was told and suffering in silence. Going back to his icy prison wouldn't be <em>hard</em>, though the mere thought was terrible.</p><p>No, it would be all too easy. That, more than anything, made him want to stop thinking. Captivity was a thousand times worse after having a taste of freedom.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Author's Note: </strong>
  </em>
  <strong>Next chapter is a big one! We're moving over the whole 'pursuit' part of this story really quickly because it's not the focus of the story. We'll be getting into one of the main parts of the story next time.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>(Also, extra thanks to my beta reader for this one; I got this chapter to them only 5 days before posting it, where usually we do two weeks in advance.)</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sun was rising, the sky glowing with its reflected light, but something stood in the way.</p><p>Toothless squinted at the horizon, trying to determine what it was that had his eyes so dazzled and confused. Something was blocking the light; not a mountain, but something that glowed, reflected, and refracted the glare throughout it. He had never seen anything like it.</p><p>There were other shapes on the horizon too, ones that grew clear relatively quickly as the Skrill flew closer. Icebergs, chunks of frozen water floating in the ocean, forming a treacherous maze below. If things were different, he might have wanted to fly through it with Maour, testing their reflexes and skill against the frosted white labrinth.</p><p>But things were not different, and instead of exploring on his own wings, he was relegated to passing above in the clutches of Skrill as they flew onward.</p><p>The field of ice and water stretched on for a long time, but as the sun rose from behind the bedazzling mountain in the center of it all, he found his attention pulled to it. The mountain was ice too, thick and reflective. It was no mere iceberg, so large it seemed impossible, and streaked with downright unnatural shades of blue and green he could only assume were the products of whatever immense cold kept it from melting in the relatively warm weather.</p><p>The mountain was a beautiful sight, and made more so by the specks flying around it. Dragons circled around the distant peak, landing on its many ledges and flying out from what he assumed were caves deeper within. Scales of every color dove into the water, or fired at the water, or flew far above in small groups. It was a nest, one of many species, hundreds of dragons strong. He hadn't seen such a thing in years.</p><p>And it was all spoiled by the way he was being taken to it. There was no doubt that the Skrill were headed for the ice mountain; they were flying directly for it. Which meant that this beautiful place was not as beautiful as it seemed.</p><p>Toothless remembered the last time he had seen many species of dragon living together. It had been a captive nest, one that only existed because the Queen needed slaves. This one might not be under the control of a Queen, or it might, he didn't know, but in any case it also sheltered evil in its midst. Some of the dragons nearest to them were flying over…</p><p>He knew better than to get his hopes up, but it was still a blow when the Skrill called out and flew faster, meeting the two Zipplebacks and Nadder that had come out to meet them.</p><p>'You return!' the Nadder screeched, diving between the Skrill. 'It has been-'</p><p>'Too long,' Toothless' captor grumbled, cutting her off. She stopped speaking the instant he began, but she didn't seem afraid. He would have called it respect, were he able to stomach the idea of such cruel creatures deserving such a thing. 'All is well?'</p><p>'The usual pawful of losses, but yes,' one of the Zipplebacks offered. 'Would you like us to fish for you while you make your way to the nest?' He flew level with the Skrill, one head looking up at him and the other staring at Toothless.</p><p>'No need, we will be free of our burdens soon enough,' Einn's captor snorted. 'You can go away now, we have been suitably welcomed.'</p><p>'I, for one, would like the company,' Toothless' captor growled, his path diverging from that of the other Skrill. 'I've spent far too long with just him, you see,' he added, speaking to the three dragons who had followed him away from Einn's captor.</p><p>'Good riddance,' Einn's captor snarled. A surge of lightning zapped Einn as it worked its way across him, and he flew away.</p><p>'How are the others?' Toothless' captor asked.</p><p>'All safe and accounted for, of course,' the Nadder said. 'They were too short of wings to spare any for the defenses.'</p><p>'It was worth the effort,' Toothless' captor snorted, shaking him a bit for emphasis. 'One extra as well as one retrieved.'</p><p>'Yes, we saw,' one of the Zipplebacks huffed. 'What of the weather, though?'</p><p>Toothless growled to himself, more than fed up with being so ignored by the three dragons - five if he counted by head, though with Zipplebacks how they counted themselves varied by the individual - and worked up the courage needed to speak and bear the inevitable punishment. 'What of me?' he barked. 'What-'</p><p>A shock coursed through him, strong enough that his jaw clenched, and he growled defiantly. He could have continued speaking, but his point had been made. All five pairs of eyes had turned to him.</p><p>'Usurpers are not our concern,' the Nadder chuffed, sounding disgruntled.</p><p>'No, they are not,' Toothless' captor agreed. 'How about you all go ahead and tell the nest that we have returned?'</p><p>'All will want to know,' one of the Zipplebacks hissed. The three dragons hastily departed, flying in different directions.</p><p>'You will not be able to ply any of your treacherous tricks here, usurper,' Toothless' captor hissed smugly. 'You are powerless and worthless here, and all know it. None will listen, none will notice. None will care.'</p><p>Toothless refrained from answering. He didn't know quite what to think of that entire encounter. Something felt off, but not in the way he had dreaded. There was no obvious leash of control around the dragons of this nest, pulling them away from forbidden things. They seemed to not care about him of their own accord, not because some despot had ordered them to say as much.</p><p>But if there was no easy answer, such disdain for his own life was much harder to excuse. He didn't like the idea of this entire nest of dragons being his enemies, but it certainly fit with what he had seen.</p><p>The Skrill carried him toward the ice mountain in silence, and he continued to look around as they approached, but the pleasant view was now thoroughly ruined. They flew down, into a cave two thirds of the way up, and through a winding passage of ice just big enough to comfortably fit a Skrill-</p><p>Then they flew out into a massive opening, and he was impressed despite himself. He had expected a cold, dreary place of water and ice and maybe stone, bleak and providing the bare minimum of shelter.</p><p>Verdant greenery, riotous flowers and plant growth, towering stone cliffs and varied topography, all centered around a clear, deep pool of salt water, was <em>not </em>what he had expected. It was as if a mountain of ice had grown up around an already bowl-shaped island, forming itself into a protective cone that sheltered the life within. Dragons lounged, flew, played, and slept everywhere, all across an array of cliffs that merged stone and ice.</p><p>He saw no signs of a controlling, monstrous Queen. There was certainly space for a dragon of that size, but nothing much larger than the Skrill carrying him was to be seen. There were several kinds of dragon that he didn't know, but none like that.</p><p>'Gawk all you want, you'll be seeing plenty of this,' his captor rumbled. He flew out over the open space in the middle of the massive, hollow island, and made for a high ledge with a conspicuously high ice wall at the edge of the bowl. It was situated at the very top of one of the cliffs, with no rock above it, and once they flew over Toothless saw that the ice was a flat, downright unnatural pane separating a small expanse of stone and weeds-</p><p>Then they were over, into an alcove, and the Skrill carrying him shifted his claws. 'Finally,' his captor groaned, and another shock coursed through him. Then he was dropped.</p><p>Toothless held his wings in, partially because he didn't want to land badly and partially because every part of him was contracting and pulling inward anyway, and fell the short distance to the ice floor.</p><p>He hit the ground with a thump that drove the wind out of him, and his mind swam. Lingering spasms coursed across him, and he groaned.</p><p>But he was free of the clutching claws and instant retribution his captor represented, so he forced himself to spread his limbs, stretching them. The flight from their latest resting point to this ice nest had not been long, not in comparison to the usual ordeal he and Einn were put through, but being carried and occasionally shocked for any length of time was not pleasant.</p><p>His spread wings brushed against ice on all sides. There was stone beneath him, but that was it. The hole had sheer walls, was about three times his height if he sat on his back legs, and barely fit him when he stood on all fours, forcing his tail to curl around or rest against the freezing wall behind him.</p><p>One of the ice walls was opaque, blue and green with more ice behind them. The other three, he noticed as he stared into them each in turn, were not. They were not fully transparent, he could barely make out shapes, but there were black lumps behind two of them.</p><p>One of those lumps might be Einn, but the other? If he weren't wary of being shocked, he would call out to them. They had to be Night Furies like him.</p><p>A Skrill screeched, laughing mockingly, and another black body dropped into the space across from him, filling a third pit like his own. 'Welcome back!' the Skrill that had been Einn's captor jeered mockingly.</p><p>'Welcome back to you, too,' another Skrill called out, its mental voice accompanied by the same distinctly audible crackle. The two Skrill landed atop the ice a short distance away. 'I half expected you to come back with none, not one, and certainly not two. How do you do it?'</p><p>'Time-tested methods, of course,' the other replied smugly. 'We found the mother of all storms headed in the right direction, and snatched them both up at the same time.'</p><p>'You must be tired,' the first said. 'But it's been a while since we got a new one, and you like to be there for the first day…'</p><p>'I'll cover for you,' Einn's captor snorted. 'Lazy sack of scale and bone that you are.'</p><p>'I like to conserve my energy,' the other shot back, not sounding all that offended. 'Besides, you <em>like </em>it when I'm lazy with the prisoners.'</p><p>'Go find somewhere to snore the day away.' One of the Skrill roared, probably the one Toothless knew, and the other flew away.</p><p>'Wake up!' The remaining Skrill shrieked loudly. 'Only warning!'</p><p>All three of the Night Furies Toothless could see rose sluggishly. None seemed to even notice him.</p><p>The Skrill descended into one of the pits and rose again, flying out toward the open space of the mountain's interior. He returned far too swiftly for him to have gone very far, and then the Fury to Toothless' right was removed.</p><p>Toothless hunched down and braced himself, guessing that he was next. Sure enough, cruel talons seized around him, jerked him out of the pit in a maneuver that felt well-practiced, and carried him the short distance to the open patch of rock and grass he had noticed earlier.</p><p>This time, he fell lightly, far more prepared for the sudden drop, and landed on his paws. The stone was gritty and rough under his paws, but it was far better than landing on his stomach or sides.</p><p>His first thought was to look for the other Night Furies that had been brought out. There wasn't much room on their cresent-shaped slab of rock. Along one side, a small pool of water abutted a sheer ice wall, the one he had seen before and noted as being impossibly thin and tall.</p><p>It was, he noticed, far clearer than any of the other ice he had seen, and offered an amazing view. The entire interior of the mountain sprawled out on the other side of the ice pane, a single blast away from him. He could see everything, and it would not be difficult to get out into the rest of the nest the moment nobody was watching. Actually traversing the mountain might be a problem, grounded as he was, but it was still far too obvious an escape route. He didn't trust it.</p><p>Putting the obvious bait out of his mind for the moment, he turned in a tight circle and looked for the two Furies who had been brought in before him. One was standing by the pond, their back to him. They looked mostly normal, bearing none of the immense scarring Einn had. Maybe a little unhealthy, lacking in muscle and as a result surprisingly curvy in odd places, but-</p><p>Einn thumped to the ground nearby, and the Skrill cackled as he flew back again, presumably to fetch another dragon.</p><p>The curvy Fury turned, and Toothless saw that she was definitely female, though still unusually thin and wasted in appearance. Her eyes were a shade of green not unlike his own, which he found distinctly odd; he had never seen a green-eyed Fury he wasn't related to, but unless she was some long-lost cousin or ancestor, she wasn't family. He wasn't quite sure how that worked, come to think of it. Fishlegs and the Eldurs liked to ramble on about it, which meant it was surely more complicated and less interesting than he would have thought.</p><p>'Well, that was short-lived,' she sighed, eyeing Einn with a sort of distant disdain that made Toothless want to growl at her. 'And you…'</p><p>Her eyes drifted to him and widened. 'Well, hello big and buff,' she hummed. 'Here to save me?'</p><p>'I…' Toothless trailed off, not sure how he was supposed to respond to that. He hadn't come of his own accord, but he <em>did </em>want to tear whatever this was down on the Skrill and get everyone out, that was just common sense, but at the same time he didn't know if saying that outright would be a smart move. He had spent too much time in the company of Nótts to just blurt out the truth when he didn't know what was really going on.</p><p>Another Fury dropped down close to Einn and immediately let out a loud snarl, taking Toothless' mind off of the female's question. 'Father,' the newly-arrived male growled, rushing to Einn's side and nosing at his wings.</p><p>'I told you not to get your hopes up,' the female huffed, not looking away from Toothless.</p><p>Toothless decided he didn't like her attitude and turned away, going over to Einn. The older male was lying on his side where he had fallen, alive and awake, but staring out at nothing in particular. He seemed just as lifeless and defeated as any other time since being captured, despite apparently being reunited with his son.</p><p>'He made it for a long time,' the male snarled. 'More than one hundred days.'</p><p>'One hundred days of fear and fleeing,' a Skrill snarled. The younger male and female both looked up, and Toothless turned around to see a Skrill perched on a shelf of ice nearby, staring at them. He didn't think it was one he had seen before, though it was hard to tell.</p><p>'Newcomer,' the Skrill buzzed. 'There are rules here. You will follow them, or you will suffer and <em>then </em>follow them. Choose wisely.'</p><p>'Don't mark up that nice set of scales any more,' the female advised. She slunk off to the side, into his field of view, and spread her wings. They bore a set of scars like Einn's at their midpoints, but less visibly, and the minor crook where the bone had set wrong was far less severe than Einn's injury, small enough that it could be overlooked. 'Protect those good looks.'</p><p>'Silence,' the Skrill commanded, shooting the female an annoyed look. A set of sparks spontaneously burst into being along its neck and wings, and the female quickly backed away, looking down at the ground. 'You, new one, listen carefully and ask questions if you are confused. I will not tell you again after today.'</p><p>Toothless nodded cautiously. This Skrill was treating him marginally better than the other two had, but he sensed the same hatred lay beneath the cold neutrality.</p><p>'No flaming, melting, or breaking ice,' the Skrill intoned. 'Your flame is for keeping you alive, not worthless attempts to flee. You will find no aid, no hiding places, and no way off of this mountain if you could even get out. You are flightless…'</p><p>The Skrill trailed off, its eyes going to his wings. 'Sadistic!' he called out.</p><p>'Well, no?' Toothless muttered to himself, confused. His grounding injury was decidedly <em>less </em>sadistic than the usual.</p><p>'What?' the Skrill that had carried Einn in barked from somewhere out of sight.</p><p>'The new one's wings,' the other demanded.</p><p>'Tail, ask the overgrown fledgling why, I don't care,' the familiar Skrill said disdainfully. 'It's grounded, no need to ground it again, something like that.'</p><p>Toothless held his tail out to the side so that the Skrill could see what the other meant; he wasn't about to get his wings broken because someone didn't fully understand what was going on. Hopefully, showing off how he was grounded wouldn't give the Skrill any ideas about maiming their other prisoners the same way. Einn had somehow gotten around his wings being broken and set wrong, but a missing tailfin was far harder to correct. He knew that from experience.</p><p>'I see…' The Skrill lecturing him huffed and sparked in irritation. 'Fine. Same rules anyway. What did I tell you?'</p><p>'No breaking or flaming ice, my fire is for keeping me alive,' Toothless repeated. He didn't like being so compliant, but until he had something to work with, defiance would just get him hurt and keep him in the dark. His captors were giving him information, knowledge about what he had been dropped into, and he needed it. He couldn't afford to act up yet.</p><p>'Good,' the Skrill growled. 'No mating. If we find an egg, we will not kill it. Your spawn will suffer alongside you. Be smart and avoid that.'</p><p>Toothless noticed the distinct lack of a fatal punishment, and again he wondered why. Skrill killed his kind, that was their whole reputation, but these weren't even willing to smash eggs, and he didn't quite buy the excuse of it being crueler this way.</p><p>'I notice something you did not say,' the female hummed.</p><p>'That rule has not changed, no mating at all,' the Skrill snarled. 'No attacking us, no talking to anyone but each other. No killing each other, no fatal wounds, no exceptions or clever work-arounds to any of the rules. I don't care for you or this, I would shock you hard enough to stop your heart and be done with it if it was up to me. Do <em>not </em>test me.'</p><p>A moment of silence passed. Toothless stared up at the Skrill, and it stared down at him.</p><p>'You have questions, and I will not answer them after this,' the Skrill huffed. 'Ask them now.'</p><p>'Okay... ' Toothless wracked his mind for a question that would be useful while not also giving away that he fully intended to escape at the first viable opportunity, and settled on the one closest to his stomach. 'How does food work?'</p><p>'You are brought one meal a day,' the Skrill replied with a low growl. 'No fighting over it. Starving each other counts as trying to kill each other. Next question.'</p><p>'Why am I here?' he asked.</p><p>'Because you are a usurper and deserve to suffer,' the Skrill snarled.</p><p>'I understand you think that,' he said diplomatically, 'but if you could explain <em>why </em>I deserve to suffer, and why you call me a Usurper, I would have a much easier time respecting your authority.' He wanted to throw up in his mouth for practically groveling to such vile filth, but if that got him answers, it was worth it.</p><p>'You don't get to know,' the Skrill snarled. 'Next question.'</p><p>'What happens if I do break a rule?' Toothless asked, seeing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with <em>that </em>line of questioning. 'I mean, so I know what I am avoiding.'</p><p>'Suffering,' the Skrill hissed. 'From me, from one of the other guards, whoever is there at the time.'</p><p>A thought occurred to Toothless, an ugly one that he couldn't bear to ignore. 'What is going to happen to him?' he asked, gesturing toward Einn with his wing.</p><p>'Less than he deserves, as he is fragile,' the Skrill hissed. 'I don't know and I don't care. He did not escape, he was… discarded by mistake. The fault does not lie with him.'</p><p>'Discarded?' Toothless asked, appalled.</p><p>'It was a mistake that will not be repeated, ask something else or cease speaking to me.' The Skrill flashed with power, little strands of lightning lashing at the air and ice around him.</p><p>'What… What are your names?' He was struggling to think of anything else to ask, anything more useful than that.</p><p>'You will never know,' the Skrill thundered. 'You hear me, <em>never</em>. Your fellow <em>insects</em> have come up with things to call us, false names we use around you, but those are not our names. The next time you address me or ask me a question, I will give you a scar.' He leaped up into the air, a half-dozen strands of electricity leaping out into the air ahead of him, and flew off to a much higher perch.</p><p>Toothless watched him until it was clear he wasn't going anywhere else, and would be perched above, probably listening in, for the time being. 'Well,' he said, trying to gather his thoughts into something coherent, 'he's touchy about names.'</p><p>'We do not need another fool cracking jokes at every opportunity,' Einn's son snarled. 'I wish you had not been captured.'</p><p>'I don't know, I like our current idiot,' the female said lightly. 'Maybe this one will add to the fun.' She flicked her tail at him and turned, showing herself off. 'Look but do not touch, those are the rules.'</p><p>'And don't look unless you want to cause trouble,' Einn's son added venomously. 'If anyone gets to have her, it would be me, not you. Big or not, I can give you a thrashing you will not soon forget. Do us both a favor and avoid that.'</p><p>'Nobody needs to thrash me, or entice me, or any of that,' Toothless growled, favoring Einn's son and the female with equally annoyed looks. 'We are all prisoners for no reason that I can tell, I think there are far more important things to focus on for the moment.'</p><p>'That moment came and went years ago,' Einn's son retorted.</p><p>'Okay, fine,' Toothless grumbled. 'But I still don't want to fight. What's your name?'</p><p>'Hefnd,' the male spat. 'Sterkurhefnd.'</p><p>Toothless tilted his head. He didn't know if he knew that word; Cloey had taught him a lot of different words as a fledgling, and it sounded familiar, but it wasn't coming to him.</p><p>'And <em>I </em>am Stolturstjörnu,' the female said brightly. 'Star, to my friends. What about you, big guy?'</p><p>'I'm not that big,' Toothless grumbled, glancing at Hefnd. The other male was, admittedly, just as thin and lanky as Star. He supposed he might be big and bulky in comparison, but that was just what a normal Night Fury should be. 'My name is Svarturkappi.'</p><p>'Warrior,' Hefnd spat. 'Cute. Well, warrior, get ready to do a whole lot of <em>not </em>fighting, not against anyone that matters.'</p><p>Einn stirred, and Hefnd put a protective wing over him. 'And what were you doing, getting my father caught?' Hefnd said accusingly.</p><p>'No, he was sheltering at our island-'</p><p>Hefnd leaped forward, startling Toothless, and landed right in front of him. 'You were homeless and alone out there, don't lie,' he snarled, staring into Toothless' eyes. 'We all were, and the Skrill would <em>hunt down </em>anyone <em>else </em>out there, so you must have been too.'</p><p>'Fine, I was alone and always have been, but you don't have to be so rude about it,' Toothless muttered, hearing what Hefnd was really saying. The last thing he wanted was to inadvertently send the Skrill back to the Isle by letting them know more Night Furies lived there, or to put them on guard for when Von came looking…</p><p>He sighed, doing his best to seem bothered by his apparent loneliness and carefully <em>not </em>looking up at the Skrill watching them. It was easy to fake it because he <em>was </em>lonely. He still felt the absence in the back of his mind that shouldn't be. Hopefully, Maour, Von, and Ruffnut were okay. They wouldn't have given up, but they wouldn't know where he was, either. He was on his own for the time being.</p><p>'Star, help me drag him to the water,' Hefnd requested, turning away. 'You, Kappi, whatever, go explore. We all did at first. You'll be done soon enough.'</p><p>'And when you are done, you have an open invitation to sit next to me,' Star called out.</p><p>'Thanks,' Toothless muttered. Looking around <em>did </em>sound like a good idea, regardless of how rudely it had been given to him. They might have given up on escaping, but he certainly hadn't. Even if it would be hard.</p><p>And the Skrill had come to drop off a prisoner <em>four </em>times aside from him, not three. There was still another prisoner to find, somewhere in here.</p><p>He made his way over to the pond, wondering if offering to help move Einn would be met with gratitude, or as seemed more likely, derision and anger. Hefnd and Star seemed to have it under control, and Hefnd telling him to go do something else might have been meant to prevent him from getting involved…</p><p>He growled and took a mouthful of the pond water, deciding not to intervene. For now, he needed to keep his head down, take in the situation, and learn as much as he could without making waves. Being pushy and offering help where none was wanted would make him stand out.</p><p>The water was cold, and as he gulped it down he shivered. The ledge that was his prison was entirely encased in a sheer wall of stone and ice, though he still had no clue how the pond water didn't eventually melt the thin ice wall it sat against, or how it was formed in the first place. Curiosity took him around the edge of the pond to where the ice wall met stone, and he walked along it for a bit.</p><p>It <em>was </em>melting. Not quickly, but drops were running down it. The sun hadn't reached it yet, but he had to imagine that when it did the melting would intensify. Hopefully the cold would abate too; nothing was warm in the area he had been relegated to, while warm sunlight streamed in to illuminate and heat the center of the mountain.</p><p>He looked out at the green, sunny places, and felt a pang of pure hurt. Scores of dragons of all kinds could be seen living their lives out there, happy and content, and yet there was a cruel sort of prison for others literally within eyeshot of their paradise.</p><p>There had to be some sort of manipulation at play; he could have believed such cruel aloofness of a nest of Skrill, but never of regular dragons with no reason to hate his kind. He had not seen such disdain in the Queen's nest of slaves, and to see it here was stranger than it would have been back there. He was missing something big, though he didn't understand what it could be if not a Queen.</p><p>Staring out at the happiness did nothing but make him feel bad, so he turned away, instead following the ice wall all the way across to where it met the sweeping, opaque cliff of ice that subtly curved around the edge of the giant bowl of the nest. A tumble of rocks, some bigger than he was, lay in the corner, looking unstable and dangerous, so he avoided it, skirting around the rubble.</p><p>The long, flat wall was, as best he could guess, less than a hundred paces long. There was nothing but rock, water, and a few hardy weeds on his side of the wall, and nowhere to hide. A depression in the rock away from everything else <em>could </em>conceivably hide him if he crouched in it, but the vile scent coming from that direction told him it was already in use as a waste pit. Hiding there would just get him sick.</p><p>He stopped walking and looked over at the pond. Einn, Hefnd, and Star were all lying near it, huddled close together. Three Night Furies. If it weren't for Star mentioning a fourth, he might have second-guessed his assumption that there was another aside from himself. But he didn't know where they were. There didn't seem to be any caves or open spaces in the rubble pile, and he feared accidentally shifting something and crushing someone if he went poking around.</p><p>The more he thought about it, the more he was sure the fourth Fury had to be within the rubble. That was the only place they could hide.</p><p>'Hello?' he called out hopefully. 'Is someone in there?'</p><p>Aside from the distant squawking and roaring of the dragons beyond the wall, he heard nothing.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless flamed the rock under his paws, stamping down and trying to absorb the warmth. Moving kept most of him warm, but not comfortable, and he was beginning to suspect the sun <em>never </em>reached this little prison. It was too high up on the inside of the mountain; aside from a general glow coming through the thick ice above, none of the light could reach them. Noon had to be near, judging by how the shadows were out in the nest proper, and not a single beam of sunlight had reached the ice well, much less those behind it.</p><p>He understood now why the Skrill had said fire was for keeping alive; the cold was tolerable for a time, but he could entirely believe that it would kill in the night, or in the colder part of the year, which this was not yet. As hard as it was to believe, it was still closing in on the end of the hot months of the year, though it felt like the beginning of the cold season.</p><p>'One mystery down, a dozen to go,' he grumbled, speeding up in his pointless circling march. He had gone around their enclosure a hundred times by now, but it was something to do that was not laying down next to Star. She bothered him; there was something about how she acted that got under his skin. Like he was supposed to be blinded by the fact that she was a female.</p><p>Maybe he would have been, if she was the first one he ever saw. But he had a mother, two sisters, and at least one close female friend. None of which he liked in that way, of course, and Star <em>was </em>a little bit alluring, if worryingly thin in all the wrong places. But her personality had not made a good first impression.</p><p>He passed by the seated trio of Furies once again, and huffed to himself. It was possible he was not being fair to Star; none of them had made good impressions earlier, and they were not in a good situation. It wouldn't be fair to judge her on a few words in a single encounter, especially when he could not place what it was about her that had raised his hackles in the first place.</p><p>The same could be said for Hefnd; he was mad and confrontational, but maybe only because he had just learned that his father had been recaptured, hurt, and brought back to this terrible place. That would anger anyone.</p><p>A Skrill screeched nearby, and Toothless looked up, but it wasn't the one that had been watching over them this whole time. Another was flying in, clutching a bunch of grey objects in its talons.</p><p>'Finally,' Hefnd grumbled, getting to his paws. 'And Angry, too. No delay.'</p><p>'Would you say this makes today a good day?' Star asked impishly, remaining where she was.</p><p>'Not by a long shot,' Hefnd growled. 'But it makes today less horrible than it had the potential to be.'</p><p>The Skrill, which Toothless thought he recognized as the one that had captured him, landed in the middle of their area, dropped the fish, and quickly divided the extremely meager pile into five portions.</p><p>Toothless' stomach rumbled, and he stared forlornly at the three fish that made up his share. They might have made a good light meal when he could look forward to one or two more servings throughout the night, but as the only food he was getting until this time tomorrow, it was a pitiful, lacking attempt he would have laughed at in another setting.</p><p>He understood now why Hefnd and Star looked so malnourished, they <em>were</em> malnourished. It was not just a look, they barely got enough to live off of. No wonder they had spent all morning lying still by the pond; they probably didn't have the energy to spare for anything else.</p><p>'I'm not going to bring yours over,' Hefnd growled, passing by Toothless to collect three of the five meager piles. 'Get your own food.'</p><p>'I did not expect you to,' Toothless murmured, trying to put his mind off of the impending hunger. The Skrill had not fed him <em>well </em>while they were travelling, but they had provided as many fish as they could catch in a short time, which was much more than this.</p><p>He walked over to the remaining two piles and swallowed his three, one after the other in quick succession. Then he looked at the last trio of fish, his mind going to something else entirely.</p><p>'I have not yet seen whoever this belongs to,' he said, looking over at Star and Hefnd. 'Where are they?'</p><p>'Grey only comes out once a day,' Star purred, tossing her head in the direction of the rubble pile. 'Come over here and get ready for the only entertainment we get around here.'</p><p>Again, Toothless was bothered by her tone, but he wasn't quite sure why. He joined Star and the others by the pond, but sat a short distance away from them.</p><p>'Why so standoffish?' Star asked, slapping her tail on the stone between them. 'We all share body heat here, you're going to want to get used to me.'</p><p>'Not too used to her,' Hefnd grumbled.</p><p>'I'm good, thanks,' Toothless said, hoping they wouldn't get into another argument, either with him or about him.</p><p>'You'll come around,' she assured him. 'Now, where is Grey?'</p><p>'Looks like she is not coming out today,' Hefnd rumbled. 'Odd. I lay claim to her fish if she doesn't show.'</p><p>'I thought we were not supposed to steal food from each other,' Toothless said. He imagined that he could feel the Skrill's eyes on his back, and avoided looking up.</p><p>'It's not stealing if she gives it up for no reason,' Hefnd asserted. 'Right, father?'</p><p>Einn blinked at him, then closed his eyes. He was even <em>less </em>active than he had been on the journey to this terrible place, if that was even possible.</p><p>'Right,' Hefnd growled to himself. 'There is nothing against giving away food, so long as you are not trying to starve yourself.'</p><p>'About that,' Toothless said, seeing a chance to dig into one of the big mysteries around this entire situation. 'Why do they want us alive?'</p><p>'Because they hate us,' Hefnd said simply.</p><p>'Yes, obviously, but in my experience Skrill kill,' Toothless huffed quietly. 'I have heard of humans taking captives or slaves, but this is something unheard of for dragons.'</p><p>'These do, and their whole nest goes along with it,' Star rumbled. 'It's best not to question these things. Just take it for granted and live with it.'</p><p>Toothless scowled at the ground. He didn't like that answer at all; it reeked of giving up and doing nothing. But if they didn't want to tell him, he would just have to get his answers from somewhere else-</p><p>'There you are,' Star exclaimed. 'What, did you fall asleep?'</p><p>A grey shape was pushing out from under a spot near the edge of the pile of rubble. Toothless couldn't see how all the rocks weren't collapsing on top of the dragon… But he was abruptly distracted by the dragon herself.</p><p>She was not like the others in any way. No lightning scars marred black scales, not on this one. She <em>had </em>no black scales, no scales at all. Her body was grey from paw to wingtip, leathery and devoid of scales of any color, like they had all fallen off and never returned. The same marks of malnourishment he saw on Hefnd and Star were far more pronounced here, entirely visible on smooth, flat skin. She had to be immensely old, to be so weathered and dull.</p><p>'No,' Grey said in a <em>young </em>voice. She sounded surprisingly cheery, given the circumstances, and couldn't possibly be much older than he was, despite how she looked. 'You know me, I just lost track of time.'</p><p>Toothless stared at her as she made her way over to the fish. Her body was not old and naturally aged, it couldn't be unless her mental voice was somehow deceiving him, but he didn't understand how she had come to look as she did.</p><p>'Give us a joke, then,' Star called out. 'It's all you're good for.'</p><p>'Well, I definitely am not here for my looks,' Grey quipped, flaring crooked wings in a mockery of how Star herself had shown off earlier. She took her fish and bit one in half, rolling it around in her mouth for a moment before swallowing. 'Or my dainty eating habits. Did I tell you the one about the rock-eaters and me?'</p><p>' No, this is new,' Star hummed. 'Go on.'</p><p>Grey finished her fish slowly, delaying. When she finally finished, she let out a happy purr and turned back toward the rocks. 'Two Gronckles fly up to my rubble pile. They start eating it. I ask them to stop. What do they do?'</p><p>'What do they do?' Hefnd huffed. He didn't sound particularly interested in the answer, but he asked anyway.</p><p>'They eat me!' Grey barked.</p><p>Star burst out into laughter, Hefnd rumbled a bit, and Toothless politely chuckled a little, though he didn't find that joke funny in the slightest. He supposed he wasn't quite bored enough to see the humor in it, especially when the tail of the joke was Grey's own strange appearance. Making fun of that seemed rude, even if she was the one doing it.</p><p>Grey glanced at him, then turned her tail on them and quickly walked back to the rubble pile, worming her way underneath an overhanging stone Toothless was sure would crush him if he tried the same. Smaller stones were shifted in front of the opening shortly after Grey disappeared inside.</p><p>'Why does she do that?' Toothless asked. 'I thought sharing warmth was important.'</p><p>'She's weird,' Hefnd huffed. 'She has been here longer than any of us. Don't question it, she will just joke and refuse to give a straight answer.'</p><p>'So you say,' Toothless murmured. 'But she <em>will </em>say something.' She seemed happy and approachable, more so than any of the other Furies. He had half a mind to try and talk to her, now that he knew where to go. Even if she gave no straight answers, she might say something useful by accident.</p><p>'Don't bother with her, she's only good for amusing the rest of us,' Star said dismissively. 'And she knows it. You'll get bored of her quicker if you try to talk to her.'</p><p>'I'll determine that for myself,' Toothless growled. Her discouragement only made his mind up for him, ironically. He stood and made his way over to the pile of rocks, crouching near the blocked-up entrance.</p><p>'Hello?' he called out. 'Grey?'</p><p>There was movement inside, a rustle of skin on stone. 'Yes?' she said hesitantly.</p><p>'My name is Kappi,' he offered. 'I was brought in this morning.'</p><p>'You should have introduced yourself as Óheppinn, then,' she chirped. 'Unlucky. You know, because you ended up here. But then I guess we're all Óheppinn. That would make things confusing.'</p><p>'Names around here are already confusing enough,' he agreed, hoping to keep the conversation going. 'I still don't know what I'm supposed to call the Skrill.'</p><p>'I gave them nicknames,' Grey revealed. 'The one who lectured you is Tolerable. The others are Angry, Sadistic, Condescending, and Cold. There were a few more, but they're not around now.'</p><p>'You actually call that one Sadistic to his face?' Toothless asked, torn between appalled and amused despite himself. He <em>had </em>thought of the Skrill carrying Einn as the sadistic one of the two, and his own captor was definitely angry a lot, but calling them that directly? And them even adopting those names and using them? It was absurd in a dark way, a joke shared between abused and abusers.</p><p>'He likes it,' Grey rumbled. 'Making him happy without pain is a good thing. You'll learn. Try not to end up like me.'</p><p>'Like you?' Toothless asked soberly, any amusement he had felt sucked away by that warning. 'This is something he did?'</p><p>Silence was the only response he got, and he sensed that he had stepped on a sore spot for the otherwise cheerful Fury, though that made no sense since she had joked about the same subject herself. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend,' he offered.</p><p>'You can't offend me,' Grey said gleefully, as if she wasn't bothered at all. She sounded genuine. 'Everything is funny, I'll just make a joke out of it later.'</p><p>'That is very… optimistic.' He couldn't imagine being <em>that </em>happy in a place like this, but if it worked for her, who was he to judge?</p><p>'Do you want me to make a joke for you?' she asked. 'I can. I do for Star and Hefnd and Einn.'</p><p>'I would rather learn about this place and you,' he admitted. 'I have a lot of questions, and you seem like the best one to answer them. How did you get here?'</p><p>'I'll make you a joke,' Grey said again. 'Or a riddle, but I'm not good with those. Something funny.'</p><p>'Okay,' Toothless rumbled, humoring her. 'How do we do that?'</p><p>'I do that,' Grey said. 'Come back tomorrow? I will have it done by then.'</p><p>'Can I ask you about other things in the meantime?' he requested.</p><p>'I need to think of something funny,' she objected. A soft, churring rumble followed that statement, the first physical noise she had made since they began talking.</p><p>'I'll come back tomorrow, then,' he conceded.</p><p>She barked a short, abrupt laugh, then fell silent. He lingered there for a few moments, silent, then stood and walked a few paces away and sat down again, at a loss.</p><p>There was something about her that bothered him, sort of like Star but not in the same way. Star made him feel defensive and wary, but Grey just confused him. Something was not right… Nothing was right, more like, even if she was a shining beam of positivity in this otherwise dark, gloomy place.</p><p>'New, straight wings,' Grey mused. He didn't think she was talking to him; she probably didn't even know he was still nearby. 'Grey, scaleless, ugly… Something about rocks? But I already did that, and it might insult him…'</p><p>Toothless moved away, even more confused by her attitude. He couldn't even blame some nefarious Queen for the attitudes of his fellow prisoners; their minds were their own, no Queen could change that.</p><p>But now that he thought about it, they all had strange things about them. Einn didn't speak, Hefnd was confrontational, Star was condescending and trying far too hard to be alluring, Grey was optimistic in a way that seemed genuine despite everything…</p><p>And that was without even thinking about the Skrill, or the nest he could see even now, or the ice that should have melted by now, or the fact that these other Furies had been here for <em>years</em>…</p><p>Toothless sat down with his back to the ice wall and closed his eyes, bearing the constant chill in the air for the moment. He needed to think, to piece all of this together into something he could understand. Something he could exploit, fix, and use to get out and find Maour and Von and go home. Ideally after destroying all that was wrong about this place in the process.</p><p>If nothing else, it seemed like he would be given ample time to think without distraction, so long as the cold and the rumbling that was already starting in his belly didn't count.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ice crackled between Toothless' claws as he flexed, and he growled as the numbness began to give way to an agonizing procession of tiny claws and teeth, or as Maour called it, pins and needles. All four of his paws had small accumulations of frost to be broken off, but his left hind paw had the worst of it.</p><p>He shook his limb again, smacking it against the stone. His eyelids began to droop of their own accord despite the pain, and he only caught himself drifting off when his chin bumped into his chest.</p><p>'Hey, big warrior,' Star called out from where she stood by the pond. 'How was your first night here?' She lifted a wing invitingly, showing off the empty space at her side.</p><p>Toothless shuddered and made for her, quickly taking the offered spot. His dislike of her attitude from the day before was still very much present, but at the moment he had far more pressing concerns.</p><p>'Ooh, bad if you're this cold,' Star said lightly, folding her wing over his back. She was warm, in contrast to everything else, and Toothless almost fell asleep then and there. 'You used your fire too quickly, didn't you?'</p><p>He nodded tiredly. He had run out of fire before the night was half over, as best he could remember, and it hadn't come back quickly enough to fully stave off the cold. He had come out of the icy little cell more tired than he had gone in, and chilled to the bone in a way that made him feel <em>slow</em> as well as cold and miserable.</p><p>'You'll get used to it,' Star offered. Her words might have been more comforting if she didn't sound so insincere. 'And if you don't, well, I get a big, attractive male to snuggle up with every day, so fine by me.'</p><p>'No snuggling,' Hefnd growled from the other end of the pond. He had been pawing water to his father's face, either to wake him up or to clean him, and a trickle of ice-cold water worked its way into the base of Einn's ear. He barely seemed to notice, tilting his head to the side without even opening his eyes.</p><p>Today, Toothless felt a lot more sympathy for Einn's lethargy. Really, he was a lot more sympathetic toward everyone, Hefnd and Star included. He closed his eyes and felt the telltale haze of sleep descending over his mind-</p><p>Something exploded right in front of his face, he reared back, and suddenly the length of his tail was immersed in ice-cold water, which had him yelping and leaping forward, only belatedly realizing that something had just exploded.</p><p>A Skrill's mocking laughter filled the air, and Toothless knew it was directed at him. 'No snoozing, Usurper,' the Skrill everyone called Sadistic said smugly from atop the ice ledge looking down on their enclosure. 'Night is for sleep, day for regretting that you ever hatched.'</p><p>'I'm regretting someone's hatching,' Toothless muttered rebelliously, though not so rebelliously that Sadistic could hear him.</p><p>Star purred in amusement and sauntered around in front of him, shaking her wings out in a way that Toothless couldn't help but see as alluring. 'How rude' she murmured. 'But that's the rule, no sleeping. Laying around with your eyes open, though, is totally allowed.'</p><p>'I think I'm up now,' Toothless grumbled. His heart was still racing from what had to have been a small lightning strike right in front of him just as he fell asleep, and he needed to do <em>something</em>. 'Thanks.'</p><p>'The pleasure was mine,' Star said, returning to her spot by the shore. 'Once you've settled down, you're welcome to come back.'</p><p>'Maybe,' Toothless conceded. He was thinking more clearly now, if only because he still felt as if he might have to fight for his life at any given moment, and he didn't know if he wanted to make a habit of laying next to Star.</p><p>He wandered away from the pond, feeling the mocking gaze of Sadistic on his back wherever he went. The Skrill was still watching from the same place, and acted as if he would be there all day, sprawling out and idly clawing ice from the edge with his talons.</p><p>Again, the impossibility of it all struck Toothless as he watched Sadistic dig at his own perch. How was it that this place had existed for any amount of time without melting away? The ice wall separating them from the rest of the nest was noticeably thinner and easier to see through compared to the day before, and wouldn't last the week at this rate.</p><p>'How does it all stay like this?' he muttered, staring out at the nest once more. He was missing something big, but he didn't know what. Nothing had changed out in the nest proper; dragons still flew around freely, none so much as glanced his way, and none gave any sign of worrying about the ice mountain they lived in melting away, though it surely would.</p><p>If Maour were with him, he would come up with some far-fetched theory that explained everything, probably involving something seemingly unrelated that Toothless hadn't thought was important.</p><p>'It's the…' He searched his mind for the least relevant thing he could think of. 'The… Prisoners!'</p><p>He groaned and turned away from the ice wall. 'No, not that.' He certainly wasn't doing anything to keep the ice from melting or the Skrill from killing them all, and he doubted Hefnd, Einn, Star, or Grey was. His kind did not make things cold, he didn't even <em>like </em>being cold.</p><p>'But if it's not us, and it's not the Skrill, and it's not any of them…' he trailed off, thinking hard. Something or someone had to be maintaining the ice. If it wasn't the Skrill, and it wasn't any of the prisoners, then it had to be another dragon in the nest.</p><p>He whirled back to the ice wall and all but pressed his head to it, staring out at the verdant nest beyond with new interest. There were scores, hundreds of dragons flying around, lazing on ledges, or cavorting on the ground, and many were species he had never seen before. One of the species he didn't know could be responsible for the ice…</p><p>And therefore a potential weakness. A plan was coming to mind, or the bare bones of one part. If a dragon could make ice, a Night Fury could go anywhere with them, even on paw. All it would take was an endless ice bridge over the ocean. By the same reasoning, that dragon <em>not </em>adding to the ice wall, or the terrible ice pit he had failed to sleep in, could create a vulnerability that didn't need fire to be exploited, a tunnel out through the wall somehow.</p><p>He purred to himself, pleased with his cleverness. Some of the dragons out there looked like likely candidates, now that he was thinking about who might be keeping the ice fresh. There was a scattered assortment of bulbous dragons that seemed like larger cousins to Gronckles, and he could see one swallowing a huge chunk of ice. Alternatively, there was a dragon sporting a crazy assortment of frills lurking by the water that made up the center of the ice nest, doing nothing but looking appropriately exotic. It would be a strange dragon, to make ice instead of fire.</p><p>'Which are you?' he muttered, settling down to watch. The moment he saw any dragon adding to the ice somewhere, he would know who to contact, bribe or threaten, and then escape with. Not being able to fly didn't matter if he could walk to the nearest island and do… something. His plan was vague beyond that; getting out was enough of a challenge on its own.</p><p>Not that it mattered; he had all the time in the world to think up the next step. So much time…</p><p>An explosion just behind him made him jump right into the ice wall, slamming his forehead on the surprisingly strong expanse.</p><p>'No sleeping!' Sadistic crowed from afar.</p><p>Toothless growled and refused to turn around, denying the Skrill the satisfaction of seeing his anger… or his deeply rooted exhaustion. Instead, he began sharpening his claws on the stone underpaw, and remained standing as he stared out at the nest. At worst, he might be able to learn to doze on his paws…</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Two Big-Gronckles smacked their bulbous tails together, then turned around and butted heads… Or possibly the other way around; Toothless still wasn't sure with some of them. A third, smaller dragon of the same kind watched from a nearby rock, unmoved as the two combatants began trying to knock each other over.</p><p>'You're obnoxious!'</p><p>'I'm <em>proud</em>!'</p><p>It was, Toothless mused, somewhat fitting that the argument going on by the pond, between Hefnd and Star, so perfectly fit what the dragons he was watching fight might very well be saying. He couldn't hear <em>them</em>, of course, they were on the other side of the nest, but Hefnd and Star were good substitutes.</p><p>'Which is another word for obnoxious,' Hefnd snarled in the background, his voice lacking any real bite to it. Toothless had heard worse from a certain Nótt back in the day. Hefnd and Star weren't arguing like the Thorstons usually did, there was genuine annoyance on both their parts, but it was somewhere below serious, like a petty squabble they had gone over a thousand times before, damped down with the lethargy that infected everything in this terrible place.</p><p>The not-Gronckles continued to slam their heads or possibly tails together.</p><p>'And what does being proud have to do with stinking up the whole pond?' Hefnd asked loudly after a long pause.</p><p>'I did <em>not</em>,' Star barked. 'I do not stink!'</p><p>'Oh, right,' Hefnd growled. 'That was it. You're so proud you think your-'</p><p>'And I am a delicate, impressionable female, so watch your mouth!' There was a distinct slapping sound, just as the dragons Toothless was watching both smacked into the ground in a clumsy maneuver he bet they both immediately regretted. On the bright side, he now knew which side was the head; they wouldn't be reeling around in a daze if they had just smacked their tails.</p><p>Another slapping sound rang out, and Star yelped. 'That hurt!' she complained.</p><p>'Yes, it did,' Hefnd retorted. 'That's what you get. Want more?'</p><p>Toothless went back to attempting to ignore their bickering, more interested in the scene in front of him. The big-Gronckles, whatever they were called, were parting ways, and the smaller one that had watched their fight went with neither of them. That proved wrong his theory that they were fighting for a mate, so the whole thing had accomplished nothing…</p><p>Much like his watching the nest. Not one dragon had looked his way, and none had come to maintain the ice wall, which was noticeably thinner than it had been the first time he saw it. By this time tomorrow, running into it like he had would probably shatter a good portion of it.</p><p>A crackle of light up at the top of the mountain caught his attention, and he looked up to see a Skrill descending, its body flickering with lightning, as usual. The other dragons gave it a wide berth, likely because of the lightning, not its general personality, and it flew onward, passing directly over him and flying down to deposit their daily fish.</p><p>'You're late!' Sadistic snarled from his spot above them all.</p><p>'You don't care anyway,' the Skrill retorted lazily, flying up to perch near Sadistic. 'Can I put them back early, or are you going to whine about it?'</p><p>'No, you can't,' Sadistic rumbled. 'Shut up and sit down.'</p><p>Toothless waited until he was sure they wouldn't be saying anything else, then made his way over to the meager pile of fish. This time it was one big, disorganized mess, and Hefnd was already there, sorting it out into five portions.</p><p>Hefnd looked up, noticing Toothless just as he finished pawing the fish around. He growled quietly and tossed his head in the direction of the closest pile. 'Yours.'</p><p>Toothless looked at the three fish, two small and one large, that he had been given. Then he eyed the two portions Hefnd was standing over, both of which contained three large fish. They were both unfair portions, and his first instinct was to call Hefnd out on it… But he could be smart about it.</p><p>'I think fairness is important,' he said calmly, meeting Hefnd's stare with one of his own. 'But some of us need more than others. If you were just giving your father the best of the fish, I would understand.'</p><p>'You're new around here,' Hefnd growled back. 'You don't get to call me out. Those who have been here longest get the best fish when there are no piles.'</p><p>'What's the order of seniority, then?' Toothless asked. He wasn't entirely sure, but he didn't think that was <em>really </em>how Hefnd was dividing up the food. His pile was smaller than Hefnd's, but so were the other two, both containing three small fish.</p><p>'You are at the bottom,' Hefnd snorted. 'Then Star, then me and my father. Grey doesn't count.'</p><p>'She would be on top?' Toothless asked.</p><p>'By a long shot,' Hefnd grumbled. 'But like I said, she doesn't count. She's smaller and doesn't eat as much. So take your share and stop whining about fairness.'</p><p>That was a challenge, and Toothless knew he couldn't back down without there being consequences, such as being relegated to the worst portions of fish. 'Make me,' he growled, holding back half a dozen more creative responses for the time being.</p><p>Hefnd stiffened, his eyes narrowing to slits. 'What was that?'</p><p>'Make me, if you can,' Toothless said coldly. He was tired, but not too tired to fight someone who looked half-starved… and tired <em>enough </em>to be willing to fight, just to end the argument. 'You talk like you want to fight, so back it up.'</p><p>Hefnd glanced at the wall behind Toothless, atop which one of the Skrill was perched, and shook his head. 'Not now,' he snarled, stamping on the tails of his share of fish and piercing them with his claws. 'The moment nobody is watching, I'll put you in your place. Not before.'</p><p>'You'll try,' Toothless snorted. This was probably where Maour would advise he patch things up with the other male, but he just didn't feel like it. Maybe later. He took his fish, small though they were, and swallowed them. None were large enough to be worth biting into, and his stomach gurgled forlornly when he was finished, as if complaining about his stinginess.</p><p>'Get used to it,' he grumbled to himself, keeping his eyes off the other fish piles. He wasn't going to steal from the others; that was a fast path to everyone hating him… or fearing him, if he backed such an act up with threats. Not what he wanted.</p><p>Two rocks scraped together on the far side of the area, and Star's ears perked up. 'Time for a show,' she purred, coming up to take her fish and quickly retreating to Hefnd's side.</p><p>Toothless settled down a few paces away from the others, mostly to avoid being right across from Hefnd, and watched as Grey came out to eat her fish. He felt oddly rude, staring at her smooth, pale form as she ate. Everyone aside from Einn was watching, waiting for whatever performance she was about to put on.</p><p>Maybe it was just his lack of sleep and twitchy nerves that had him nervous about what was going to happen. They were all prisoners and Grey apparently liked entertaining people; it shouldn't have been odd that they were all anticipating the one interesting thing that was likely to happen that day.</p><p>'Does anyone have some ice?' Grey asked, having finished the last of her fish.</p><p>Toothless looked around at the walls of ice penning them in, and the massive ice mountain above their heads, wondering if she was serious. Was taking ice even allowed? Their Skrill guard certainly didn't seem to care; he looked half asleep, his tail dangling down from his perch.</p><p>'Because I know how to make some, if you don't,' Grey said lightly. 'Just spit and wait!'</p><p>Toothless forced a small chuckle, mostly to break the awkward silence.</p><p>'See, he gets it!' Grey exclaimed, her voice bright and cheery. 'And believe me, it's the best way to make ice around here. The other ways aren't so great when they melt, as we all know...'</p><p>Star let out a barking laugh, loud and long, and Hefnd chuckled along with her. This time, Toothless remained silent, mostly because he didn't get the reference.</p><p>'Oh, Grey, I think you need to explain that one,' Star said, looking over at Toothless. 'My new friend wasn't here to see that.'</p><p>Grey's face froze for a moment; it was a subtle shift, the way her ears stilled and her eyes darted from Star to Toothless, but he saw it before she shook her head. 'I don't think that's as funny as the jokes I have-'</p><p>'No, it's better,' Star purred. 'Go on, tell it.'</p><p>'Okay…' Grey turned away from them for a moment, then turned back again, her face as bright and open as ever. 'So, you know the pits we sleep in, right?' she asked, looking directly at Toothless.</p><p>'Sleep is a generous word,' he said.</p><p>'Yes, it is,' Grey said, nodding vigorously. 'Well, back when I first got here, I had a plan to escape.'</p><p>Toothless glanced up at the Skrill, and saw that he wasn't paying any more attention than before, even though Grey had said 'escape' loud enough to be heard.</p><p>'My plan was to make ice,' Grey continued. 'The more ice I made, the shallower the pit got, and eventually I would be able to jump out, right?'</p><p>'Right…' Toothless said slowly, wondering where this was going.</p><p>'So I did, I made as much ice as I could, but when I went to sleep, it froze <em>around </em>me,' she said quickly. 'And then I had to melt it. So that didn't work. Now, my next joke-'</p><p>'Wait, you didn't tell the best part!' Star interrupted.</p><p>'I think I got it,' Toothless said. He <em>had </em>just gotten what Grey was talking about, and he wanted nothing more than to move away from that terrible story. There were only a few ways to bring water into that pit in any substantial amount, and neither of the two he could think of were pleasant to be trapped in and then forced to melt around oneself in the morning. 'Let's talk about something else.'</p><p>'But it's so much funnier when she <em>tells</em> it,' Star insisted.</p><p>Toothless stood, turned, and glared at her. 'No. I don't want to hear it.' He turned back to Grey, who was watching them both, her face blank of any telling expression. It was odd to see her <em>not </em>beaming with happiness. 'You said you were coming up with a joke for me?' Toothless ventured, feeling more uneasy than ever.</p><p>'I was!' Grey exclaimed, going back to cheerful and excited in a heartbeat. 'Here it is. What is black, missing a tailfin, and inside this mountain?'</p><p>'Me?' Toothless asked, utterly bemused.</p><p>'A Changewing in the dark!' Grey declared proudly.</p><p>Star snorted rudely. 'That was terrible,' she proclaimed. 'Look, he's not even laughing.'</p><p>Toothless realized that he hadn't laughed, which made sense since he was pretty sure he didn't get the joke. 'It was funny,' he protested weakly. Never in his life had he felt so awkward and uncertain.</p><p>'I'll come up with a better one,' Grey promised, before turning her tail on them and running back to her hiding place.</p><p>'And <em>that </em>is how you get rid of her,' Star chuckled. 'Just don't laugh at her jokes. They're the only reason she comes out every day.'</p><p>'Am I…' He trailed off, trying to get his extremely mixed feelings into words. 'What was that?'</p><p>'A terrible attempt at a joke, obviously,' Hefnd grumbled. 'Just don't encourage her.'</p><p>'Encourage her?' Toothless asked incredulously.</p><p>'Yes, her.' Hefnd gave him a decidedly unimpressed look. 'Just go along with what we do.'</p><p>'Rotten fish to <em>that</em>,' he shot back with a glare. He felt terrible about what he had just witnessed, and the more he thought about it, the more he understood why. 'You're acting like she's just some fun entertainment to mock and laugh at and ignore.'</p><p>'Because she <em>is</em>,' Star huffed.</p><p>'If I could bite you right now without getting shocked,' Toothless said venomously, 'I would. Something is twisted here aside from the Skrill and this never-melting ice and the dragons on the other side, and I'm not going to just laugh and join in.' He felt soiled just from sitting next to Star, however warm she was.</p><p>'You're making a big deal out of nothing,' Star growled. She bared her teeth at him, apparently bothered by what he had said. 'Stop throwing a fit about the only real entertainment we get around here.'</p><p>'I'd rather die of boredom than laugh at something like that,' Toothless snarled.</p><p>'Then go die of boredom and stop bothering us!' Hefnd growled.</p><p>Toothless turned his back on them and walked away. He stalked over to the ice wall and stared out into the mountain refuge beyond, mostly so he didn't have to look at the people he was trapped with.</p><p>His thoughts were still whirling, as confused as a flock of Terrors when a larger dragon dove through them, and he growled to himself as he tried to put them back in order.</p><p>There was something deeply wrong with the display he had just sat through, the way Grey was all cheer and no bite, taking Star's mean-spirited comments and requests in stride. He <em>knew </em>friendly joking and even not-so-friendly joking, nobody lived on the same island as the Myrkurs for any length of time without becoming familiar with their style of humor. This was nothing like that.</p><p>He growled again, louder this time, and pointedly turned his back on the scene out beyond the ice. Star and Hefnd might be terrible people, or just very bored, or something else entirely, he didn't know and he couldn't bring himself to care. What he <em>did </em>care about was the cracked, false cheer with which Grey had responded to him not getting the joke. It reminded him of Maour, back when they had first met, though the situation was entirely different…</p><p>Or maybe not, on second thought. He was flightless, trapped on a hostile island, and someone clearly needed a friend. He might as well fall back on the basics; his interest in Maour had served them both well last time. Maybe Grey could help him escape.</p><p>In fact, he thought as he turned toward her rock pile, she <em>definitely </em>could help him plan an escape. She was probably the most knowledgeable prisoner, and by far the most agreeable. <em>Too </em>agreeable; he would be more comfortable talking to her if she wasn't so relentlessly cheerful.</p><p><em>His </em>comfort didn't matter, though, so he sat on his tail by the pile of rubble and chuffed loudly.</p><p>There was no response, which he really should have expected. 'Grey?' he called out.</p><p>'I am busy thinking of better jokes,' Grey replied, outwardly cheerful. He had a hard time believing she was <em>actually </em>in a good mood, and the few cracks in her composure he had seen recently seemed to support that.</p><p>'Your joke wasn't bad,' he said. 'I just did not get it. I do not know what a Changewing is.' He didn't feel so good about lying to her - he <em>did </em>know what a Changewing was - but getting her into explaining things seemed like it would be helpful. Doubly so if it made her think her joke not making him laugh was his fault, which it partly was.</p><p>'You do not?' Grey asked. 'How could you not? There are a dozen living out there, they are very noticeable.'</p><p>'There are many exotic species I don't recognize,' he rumbled. 'Maybe you could explain the joke to me?'</p><p>'Explaining jokes takes all the fun out of them,' Grey grumbled. 'But okay. You are big and black and missing a tailfin, right?'</p><p>'Yes,' he hummed, declining to argue that he wasn't all that big. Compared to her or the other Night Furies held captive here, he definitely was.</p><p>'So I set it up so that you would think I was talking about you, but I was actually talking about a Changewing in the dark, because they can make themselves clear like ice and don't have tailfins. Clear in the dark means black like a shadow, missing a tailfin… get it?'</p><p>'Now I do,' he assured her. 'It is funny. Maybe you could tell me more about this place, so I will understand all of your future jokes?'</p><p>'I can do that,' Grey said quietly after a moment's pause. 'What don't you know?'</p><p>'I don't know why I am here, or what kinds of dragons live out there, or why they live out there, or where we are, or who is in charge, or <em>anything</em> about this place,' he said. 'Any of that would be helpful.'</p><p>'So it would be fair to say you know what you don't know, but don't know what else you might know?' Grey asked.</p><p>Toothless couldn't see her, but he had no trouble seeing the humor in that. 'I don't know,' he chuckled. 'Do you know?'</p><p>'I know some things,' Grey said cheerily. 'This is the ice nest. Everyone says it is the biggest, best nest ever.'</p><p>Toothless glanced around the miserable little enclosure they were stuck in, then looked out at the rest of the mountain's interior. 'For dragons who do not happen to be like us, I guess,' he said.</p><p>'For everyone else,' Grey agreed in a flat voice.</p><p>'Why is that?' he asked.</p><p>Grey didn't answer.</p><p>'Why do they call this the best nest?' he asked after the awkward silence was too much to bear. If she didn't feel up to answering, then he would pretend he hadn't asked, and ask something else.</p><p>'They have plenty of food, all the space they could want, and safety,' Grey huffed. 'I do not think I want to answer any more questions today.'</p><p>'Okay, sorry if I am bothering you,' Toothless hummed reassuringly. He could afford to go slow with her; time was one of the few things he had plenty of. Apparently, his captors intended him to be here indefinitely, just like the others… and the longer he waited, the more time Maour and Von had to find him, or at least find out where he was, and get help. Or pull off some crazy plan, though he'd rather his siblings go home, bring an army of their kin, and not take any dangerous chances.</p><p>'Ask tomorrow?' Grey asked hopefully.</p><p>'I'll be here,' he promised.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>"This is as good a place as any," Maour said quietly.</p><p>Ruffnut leaned forward, her hand on his armored shoulder for balance, and did her best to memorize the layout of the island in front of them. Von was coming in fast and at just the right angle to make actually seeing the island tricky… and the island's layout wasn't doing her any favors in that area either.</p><p>'It looks like a terrible place,' Von observed. 'No green at all.'</p><p>"Hey, puke can be green," Ruffnut objected. "By the looks of it, they've got a lot of taverns, so they'll have a lot of puke too." The island was one half docks and the sort of seedy operations that always seemed to grow near busy docks, and one half large stone buildings. There wasn't a single tree on the island, and if there was any grass, it wasn't visible from where they were. The closest thing to open space was the loading bays near the docks, dotted with pallets of raw material, but otherwise unoccupied. Not that she cared about those.</p><p>"Lots of sailors, plenty of money changing hands, and more importantly, plenty of information," Maour said calmly. He was calm far too often for Ruffnut's liking. It wasn't a <em>normal</em>, boring calm, it was one that made her want to tell him to lighten up. Not that she <em>would</em>; he was entitled to act like a scary… <em>whatever</em>… if it got them closer to rescuing Toothless. Or even just finding Toothless. She would be the same way if someone had taken Boom from her.</p><p>"We're going with the first plan, then?" she asked eagerly.</p><p>'If I can find somewhere to drop you off,' Von rumbled. 'I did not expect the island to be so active in the middle of the night. Do these people sleep in the day?'</p><p>"Some of them might," Maour allowed. "Try circling around, there might be an alley or garbage dump or something. Waste has to collect somewhere to be gotten rid of."</p><p>"Waste goes out, we go in," Ruffnut quipped. Neither Maour nor Von sighed, or groaned, or otherwise indicated that they had caught her dirty joke, which she was inclined to believe meant it had gone right over their heads. She could have made it <em>more </em>explicit, but that would take the fun out of letting them figure it out afterward.</p><p>"Focus on why we're here," Maour said in his scary quiet voice. "You're a crazy thrill-seeker looking to put a knife in a Skrill's eye."</p><p>"And you're a dark, mysterious hunter who's after information on dragons in general, where they gather, everything and anything," Ruffnut retorted. "I know my cover story, <em>you </em>know my cover story, I know <em>your </em>cover story… should I go on?" She didn't even need to know his story, despite his insistence that it might be useful. They weren't planning to go to the same taverns; the less time they spent on this island, the better, even if splitting up was more dangerous. Not that she intended to get into any trouble; she could easily pass for her brother, and nobody ever looked twice at him. She was magnificent and alluring, of course, entirely worth robbing just to get a look at her face, but Tuffnut was not.</p><p>"Go on and find out where the Skrill live," Maour said as Von pulled in close to the backside of the island. The stone buildings were packed tightly along the edge of a rocky slope that led down to a dismal excuse for a shoreline, but there were still spaces between them, however narrow. Filthy spaces she could already smell as they approached, but that just added to their charm. And hers, since she fully intended to keep some of the muck that was certain to get stuck in her boots.</p><p>'Ruffnut,' Von hissed as she dropped down to land in the alleyway, and what Ruffnut assumed was <em>not </em>a paw-deep coating of mud. 'You will not track any of this onto my saddle.'</p><p>"Wouldn't dream of it," Ruffnut said flippantly, hopping off to land on her own two feet. She had already abandoned breathing through her nose, so the squelching noises and odors she was probably provoking by stirring the muck didn't bother her. "Back here before dawn?"</p><p>'Just before,' Von confirmed, leaping away from the alleyway with a low moan of disgust. 'Humans are horrid.'</p><p>"More so in high concentrations," Maour muttered. "Good thing nobody thought to put windows in these… warehouses, I think."</p><p>"Windows would be way too fancy for this heap of cracked stone, rotten wood and booze," Ruffnut agreed, stepping out onto the dirt-packed excuse for a road that wound between the stone buildings. Nobody saw her exit, and a moment later Maour came out into the moonlight, draped in a black cloak she only knew he had because he had been breaking it out to use as a blanket recently. He was crazy, keeping something like that under his armor all the time, but it was a <em>useful </em>kind of crazy. He couldn't rearrange his hair and slouch to pass as a random Viking guy with muscle issues like she could.</p><p>"Before dawn," he said, pulling his hood down.</p><p>"Before then, and if you don't make it I'll have Von try and burn the place down," Ruffnut said, pulling the ties out of her hair and messing it up, demolishing her signature look in moments. She was on the hunt for information, and while she didn't <em>think </em>anyone on this miserable island would know what a Night Fury looked like well enough to recognize her signature hairstyle, one never knew.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Author's Note:</strong>
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  <strong> Short chapter this time around, mostly because the next events in both timelines are much better done as beginnings to long scenes, not shoved in halfway through or at the end. I'm planning on doing a hybrid chapter structure to follow the two separate plot threads. It'll go 'Full A, half A and half B, Full B, half B and half A' in structure, so that we never go two full chapters on the same perspective, but also don't jump back and forth every single chapter. This would be a 'half A and half B' chapter (though, again, a shorter one than usual).</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ruffnut strolled down the empty, dark street, her boots clunking against the motley array of stones that made up the ground. She eyed the buildings she passed, taking in the important parts. Window, boarded-up window, door, <em>flying body</em>-</p><p>She ducked, but the lanky man's heels clipped her shoulder anyway, sending her sprawling in the narrow street. She tucked, rolled, and sprang back up with no trouble at all, of course, years of being knocked around made that second nature, but the man who had been flung out the door of a ratty, nondescript building wasn't nearly so competent.</p><p>"Work on your flying drop kicks," she told the groaning body twitching in the gutter. He responded by puking and crawling away. This was already looking to be her kind of island, all right. She had clearly found a tavern of some sort, and rough enough that they were throwing out the drunkards the <em>right</em> way. None of the taverns on Mahelmetan did that, their idea of 'throwing' someone out was a brisk shove and maybe a punch to the face.</p><p>She liked the literal interpretation of things, so she approached the sturdy wooden door and pulled it open. This would be her first stop of the night, and hopefully not her last; it wouldn't be any fun if she found what she was looking for right away.</p><p>The door squeaked ominously as she shoved it open – and where was that squeak when it could have given her warning a few moments ago – but she didn't let that stop her. What she saw inside was worth going for. It was indeed a tavern, but she was betting it was the one meant for locals, not foreigners. Everything was worn, but nothing was dirty, and everyone in the room was giving her a stink eye.</p><p>She tilted her head and stared challengingly at the three younger men crowded around a table far too nice for any tavern that didn't have its patrons' respect already. She was tall, her hair was messy, and she knew for a fact that she could look unnerving when she wanted. Add in that they probably weren't sure who she was, or even if she was male or female, and they were too uncertain to say or do anything.</p><p>"Closed," an old man said from behind the counter. He hefted a mug as if contemplating whether to throw it at her, a polishing rag dangling forgotten from his other hand. There was a jagged gash across his forehead, not new but not even close to fully healed, and another running down the bridge of his nose. He looked like exactly the sort of person she was looking for.</p><p>"Eh, I don't mind," she said, pulling out a chair at an unoccupied table, of which there were quite a few. "Visiting family round here, heard this is the only place that doesn't suck Gronckle boulders." One of her primary roles back home was infiltration, and infiltrating a place like this was child's play. Toe the line with the attitude, make the bartender feel good about himself, imply 'in' status as family of a local, it was easy. She just had to make being thrown out seem like more trouble than it was worth.</p><p>"Wha' family?" One of the women by the counter asked suspiciously, setting her oversized mug down to turn and stare at Ruffnut.</p><p>"No clue, looking for them, got told they lived here a while," Ruffnut lied. "Might not live here now, but who knows." She wasn't a local, not quite, but she just needed a plausible excuse for them, not a full backstory. Also, there was a chance some busybody would demand to go see her relative or otherwise pick her apart if she gave them anything checkable… It was a subtle art, and thus one she innately failed at, but she'd had lots of practice because Tuffnut was insufferable if he could consistently beat her at anything.</p><p>"Name?" the other woman asked, and Ruffnut sensed the rest of the tavern's occupants relaxing. It was subtle, one man going back to his food, another leaning back in his chair, a group of people resuming their muffled conversation… She wasn't <em>in</em>, but she was tolerable and someone else was making her their problem for the moment. So long as the woman questioning her didn't raise a stink, she wouldn't be thrown out.</p><p>"Last name Thorston, she changes the first name but always keeps the last," Ruffnut reported. She wasn't here to find her mom, who was off looking for her husband, and Ruffnut doubted he was anywhere so relatively close to home as this. It was a good cover, though, and one she didn't need to fake and have trouble keeping straight. "Looks like me, longer hair, rough, searching for a guy so she can knock him out and drag him home."</p><p>"Never seen 'er," the woman admitted. "I could ask around, though."</p><p>"Don't bother, I'll do it," Ruffnut said, waving her hand. "You can help me out in another way, though. Got any Skrill round these parts?"</p><p>The woman stared at her, brows furrowed, then slowly rose from the bar and stomped over, dropping into the sturdy chair opposite Ruffnut's table. "Why'd you ask? Mother go messin' with dragons?"</p><p>"Hah, no," Ruffnut scoffed. "This one's all me. I wanna get a few impressive kills under my belt, and this Berserker dude back home kept braggin' about how Skrill are the best o' everything, so I'm gonna stab one and bring back the skull to spite him."</p><p>The woman leaned forward. "Wha' makes ya think there're any of those around here? Or that ye'd have a chance in Helheim of gettin' close to one?" Her reaction didn't seem quite right to Ruffnut; a little too serious, far too specific, redirecting with questions…</p><p>"I'm amazing," Ruffnut said truthfully. "Now, Skrill. What do you know?"</p><p>"Nothing you need to hear," the woman scoffed. "Blood yerself on some lesser dragons first."</p><p>"Been there, done that," Ruffnut shot back. "Gronckles, Zipplebacks, Whispering Deaths, all easy pickings."</p><p>"Yak dung," someone from a nearby table contributed. Ruffnut turned to give him a glare, but he was already slouching his way up to the counter for something, his ratty brown cloak hanging down over hunched shoulders.</p><p>"Even if I did believe you," the woman said carefully, drawing Ruffnut's attention back to her, "Goin' after a Skrill alone is a fancy way to die with nothing to show for it."</p><p>"Not even glorious death in battle?" Ruffnut asked. She had the feeling the woman was building up to something, and was curious as to what it was. An offer to come along would be awkward, to say the least, but if the woman intended to give her a contact of some kind, mercenaries or some other sort of paid assistance, Maour might just be willing to follow it up.</p><p>"It's not so glorious if you fail," the woman said darkly. "Ye need help, backup, supplies… There're Skrill around 'ere, but gettin' to one means gettin' past everythin' around it."</p><p>"Hit me with that sweet knowledge," Ruffnut requested, drawing an annoyed grimace from the other woman. "Where, when, and what?"</p><p>"I'm not tellin' you exactly where, you'll just go and get yerself killed, but I'll tell you what it's like and who to go to if you really want a chance." The woman huffed. "Up North, way up North, there's a field of icebergs. In the middle, there's some kind of dragon nest, but nobody's ever seen it and lived to tell the tale."</p><p>"Sounds familiar," Ruffnut said thoughtfully. The icebergs were new, but they served the same purpose as sea stacks… "Does this iceberg field have some kind of fog?"</p><p>"It's plenty hard to sail through without," the woman said quietly. "No fog, but storms are common, and perfect weather still means you're takin' chances on mountains o' ice. Tha's not the problem. All the islands closest to it are constantly under siege, there's nowhere to stop and resupply, nowhere to retreat to. Dragons o' all kinds fly over, destroy, raid, ruin everything. They do it over and over until nobody bothers living there, and then another island, further out, starts comin' under attack."</p><p>"So there are a bunch of dead villages and islands with nobody on them around, why's that matter to me?" Ruffnut asked. "I go in, hang out at the latest place to be under siege, and wait until lighting strikes."</p><p>"That'd get you killed," the woman informed her. "Seen plenty of idiots try it. There aren't real raids, not like the weaklings down South get, these are <em>attacks</em>. Not for food, for destruction."</p><p>"But there are Skrill." She had a general direction and a landmark to look for; a nest in the middle of a field of icebergs, surrounded by dead islands? Easy to find even without getting it marked on a map for her convenience.</p><p>"Some, and worse things," the woman said, staring at her. "Far worse things. You'll need help. That's where <em>he </em>comes in. Want my advice?"</p><p>"Can I get away with not hearing it?" Ruffnut asked sarcastically.</p><p>"You remind me o' myself, back in the day, so no," the woman informed her. "I was young, stupid, hunting dragons seemed like fun. It ain't, not up 'ere. Either go down South and try yer luck there, or join up with the ones makin' a difference up further North."</p><p>"Who are…" Ruffnut said, hoping to drag out a few names, maybe a description or two.</p><p>"Ain't got a name, but they're big and organized," the woman said. "Led by a big man wit' black hair and a polearm, they go 'round fightin' off the dragons and tryin' to keep the islands alive. Thor's work, what they're doin'. Join up wit' them, you'll get your fill of killin' dragons, and you'll do it with plenty o' allies and get paid, too."</p><p>"The big guy got a name?" Ruffnut asked. "So I can ask around, make sure I got the right people when I sign up." Not that she intended to, but if there was some meathead running around killing dragons near where Toothless had been taken, he might be useful. This woman certainly had a high opinion of what he was doing, though she was also of the opinion that the dragons were attacking for the sake of it, so she might not be all that reliable.</p><p>"I don't quite know," the woman admitted. "Seen 'is people in action, seen 'em defend the village I was stoppin' in, but never seen 'im myself. Somebody told me 'bout him, but I'd taken a Nadder tail to the helmet and don't remember much other than that description… His name was somethin' close to stupid, somethin' funny."</p><p>Ruffnut eyed the mug in the woman's grasp, and wondered how she seemed to be getting drunker as she spoke… without drinking from it. Maybe the mead was only now kicking in. Or maybe she was secretly amazing at sneaking drinks without being noticed.</p><p>"Dragon, but not dragon," the woman continued, staring over Ruffnut's shoulder at nothing in particular. "Drago, I think. Or Ragon, or Drag-man, or Ragged Anne, but that'd be really odd…"</p><p>"Drago, then," Ruffnut concluded, as that was the only name that sounded even somewhat plausible. "You're telling me to look for a guy called Drago and his band of merry men."</p><p>"They're not merry," the woman muttered, giving her a strange look.</p><p>"Nah, but I'll be sure to lighten them up." She crossed her arms and leaned back, refraining from putting a boot on the table solely because the old bartender was giving her the stink eye again, somehow anticipating that urge. "Tell me more about this head-banging good time you had fighting dragons with the drag-o man."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>The sound of metal on metal had drawn Maour in from a few streets away. He watched the open-air blacksmithing stall from a distance, leaning against a stone building and feigning disinterest as well as he could… which wasn't very well. He felt like a wound spring with nowhere to go, and thinking about forging things led him to thinking about Toothless, which just made him more tense.</p><p>Seeing a blacksmith didn't make him feel any better, but he decided that if he was going to be gathering information, he might as well start with what he knew best. Blacksmiths tended to collect a lot of dragon-related news anyway, what with being the ones stuck replacing melted, shattered, or otherwise broken weapons. He knew from experience that dragon-fighting damage was mostly different from weapon-on-weapon damage.</p><p>It <em>was </em>the middle of the night, though, so he was cautious in approaching the burly man working iron against an anvil that had definitely seen better days. "Got time for an appraisal?" he called out.</p><p>"No," the blacksmith yelled back, far louder than necessary. He punctuated his refusal with a particularly hard slam of the hammer. "Only open between noon and dusk, don't give out orders after dusk either."</p><p>"This is more me seeking a second opinion," Maour said. "I've got this weird metal, you see, and I'm trying to find someone who has seen it before."</p><p>"Don't care," the blacksmith grunted, <em>still </em>not looking at him. He was working on something thick and tapered at one end, though that was all Maour could tell from the shape of the hot metal.</p><p>"Well, I'm-" Maour cut himself off when the man whirled, hoisting a forge hammer up to point at him.</p><p>"Get off my street," the blacksmith grunted.</p><p>Maour knew a waste of time when he saw one - unless that waste was in the form of a totally impractical invention, though Toothless usually helped him find uses for even the weirdest ideas - so he turned away and quickly put some distance between himself and the blacksmith.</p><p>"Well, I guess it makes sense some random guy working after midnight isn't going to be too happy," he muttered. "Back to the first plan, go find somewhere people get drunk and talk to them." It couldn't be said that he liked that plan, but it had more promise than annoying an already-angry blacksmith.</p><p>In the quest to find the hammering sound he had strayed into a part of the island that consisted mostly of storehouses, some barred and some with open doors betraying empty interiors. He wandered down the street, away from the hammering, until he found signs of life in one of the empty warehouses.</p><p>A group of men, ten in total, were throwing down little blocks of wood onto a crate, staring at each other and occasionally gathering them up again. Maour wasn't so out of touch with normal Viking interactions that he didn't recognize that a game of some sort was going on, but he had no idea what kind of game it was. The flickering light of a few lanterns set around on other empty crates didn't help him see what they were doing, either.</p><p>One of them looked up, saw him, and promptly waved him over. They seemed to be in a good mood, a stark contrast to the last person he had met, so he went over to them.</p><p>"We've got room for another," the man who had waved him over said jovially. "Ante's ten or a good story, twelve is the lucky number."</p><p>"I've got plenty of stories, but no idea what you're playing," Maour said, staring down at the chunks of wood. They were somewhat uniform in shape, all being little cubes. He might have thought they were dice, Fishlegs had a few of those, but none of the cubes were marked.</p><p>"Game of skill," one of the men drawled with a strange accent. "Take turns rolling, aim for marks on crate. More in marks means more points. Bet on results." He gestured to the crate, which did indeed have a bunch of shapes carved into the top.</p><p>"Or just hang around and talk while those of us who have money to spare give it all to Uldir, here," the man next to him offered. "He always wins."</p><p>"This is because I am expert at all things thrown," the man bragged, scooping up the half-dozen pieces of wood.</p><p>Maour watched as the game went on for a few rolls. It was somewhat simple, but still more complicated than he would have expected. They had a whole system of betting, who was allowed to add in currency - of several different kinds, none of which he knew - and who won what depending on the outcome. There was more nuance in the system of betting than the actual game, really.</p><p>He lingered for a bit, but he had come to this somewhat miserable island for information, not lackluster entertainment, so he soon backed away during a heated argument over whether one of the men had kicked the crate right as another rolled. To his surprise, one of the others went with him, following him out of the warehouse.</p><p>"You look like you're looking for work," the man said without any prompting.</p><p>"What gives you that idea?" Maour asked, genuinely curious.</p><p>"No money to gamble with, foreign, wandering around a shipping port in the middle of the night," the man said confidently, gesturing to him. "You came in on a ship with an overenthusiastic captain, I'm guessing, and when he didn't make ends meet on his cargo, laid you off. Am I right?"</p><p>"Close enough," Maour lied. It wasn't like he could say how he had really got here; the last time someone didn't understand how he had gotten onto an island, he had ended up taking an arrow. For Toothless…</p><p>"Bad move," the man said, taking a step back. "Yeah, I get that. What skills you got?"</p><p>"Plenty, but what would you be hiring me for?" he asked. "I'm not looking to go just anywhere. I'm out here for my own reasons."</p><p>"Didn't say otherwise," the man said with a grin. "Come on, walk and talk." He headed out onto the street, headed toward the other side of the island, and Maour walked alongside him.</p><p>"The thing you gotta understand about business out here is that it's dying in most areas," the man told him. "Your ship was some sort of normal cargo, right? Food, wood, something necessary to live off of?"</p><p>"Pretty much," Maour confirmed.</p><p>"Worth less and less every year," the man said. "Because there's less and less people out here to buy it every year. No, there are only two trades worth following now. Mercenary and dragon hunting."</p><p>"Which are you?" Maour asked carefully.</p><p>"Eret, son of Eret, finest dragon trapper alive, at your service," the man said. "You may have heard of me."</p><p>"Nope." He definitely hadn't heard of someone who claimed trapping dragons was his profession, and a profitable one at that. They just didn't <em>have </em>that down where he lived, possibly because there was no nest concentrating dragons into one general area. That apparently wasn't the case here…</p><p>Which meant that he wasn't about to walk away, not yet. Trapping dragons meant finding dragons, which meant knowing where dragons were. It was probably better for his search that Eret wasn't a mercenary… even though Maour would have liked him better if he were.</p><p>"Pity," Eret said. "Well, I've not heard of you either. Anyway, we go out, do sweeps of the Razed Isles, catch the scavengers hanging around there. Drago pays well for every one we bring back, and we keep far from his main fleets most of the time, so the Terrors don't rip us limb from limb."</p><p>"Terrible Terrors?" Maour asked, seizing on the one term he thought he might understand without any further explanation.</p><p>"No," Eret said, proving him wrong. "Not just them, anyway, those little pests aren't what I'm talking about. Around here, we call the massive clouds of bloodthirsty dragons that attack islands <em>Terrors</em>, like you would call a group of fish a school, or a group of crows a murder."</p><p>"Never heard that one," Maour murmured, working to fit that explanation into his understanding of the world. He could maybe see a raid like those against Berk back in the day called a Terror, though no self-respecting Viking would say it with the subdued fear and respect that Eret said it. But that had been solved, it had stopped happening with the death of the Queen… Which meant there might be another Queen out here.</p><p>"What causes these Terrors?" he asked.</p><p>"Depends on what rumors you want to believe," Eret laughed. "Living mountains of scale? Icebergs treated as gods by the dragons? A lone human directing a campaign of vengeance against their own kind? A simple, bestial need to destroy? Odin's wrath? The start of Ragnarok? Take your pick, they all have as much evidence for them."</p><p>"Which is to say none, or none credible," Maour said. <em>Some</em> of those rumors sounded a lot more plausible to him, given what he had seen in the past. A mountain of scale could very well describe the Queen, and he himself could have been misinterpreted as a lone human among a pack of dragons if he and Toothless had ever been seen flying with other dragons… He wasn't willing to dismiss any of that right away.</p><p>"You're catching on," Eret said with a grin. "Whatever the cause, they're out there, they left a bunch of charred hunks of rock in their wake, and they tend to follow Drago around, or he follows them, so staying clear of him until it's payday keeps us safer than most. Interested?"</p><p>"Where is all of this happening?" Maour asked. "Maybe, if it's closer to where I want to go…"</p><p>"Where do you want to go?" Eret asked. They passed a building with bright windows, and he turned to look inside. "Crowded tonight," he commented as they passed.</p><p>"I'm looking for where Skrill nest," Maour said. He hadn't meant to give that explanation, that was more Ruffnut's cover story, but Eret was more likely than most to actually have an answer. "Heard of some flying this way."</p><p>"Well…" Eret looked his cloaked form up and down. "You don't do so well at hiding what's under there, so I don't doubt you've got something to back that up," he said dubiously. "But Skrill? We don't go after the big targets often, but Drago's bounties would make it a big payday…"</p><p>They walked in silence for a short while. A series of docks came into sight in the distance, masts towering above the rooftops.</p><p>"No, not worth it," Eret said regretfully. "I like breathing more than spending potential riches. Don't know where they would nest, anyway. Probably with all the rest, and that's a fool's errand."</p><p>"Where do all the dragons nest?" Maour asked. "Since you won't be going."</p><p>"Just follow a Terror, or sail into one, the results will be the same," Eret scoffed. "The only one who can take on a Terror is Drago, and even he doesn't follow them home. He wouldn't take well to you trying, either. He's got some sort of vendetta and a hatred for fools wasting their lives in the pursuit of glory."</p><p>"So he likes you?" Maour asked sarcastically. "You know, since you won't take any risks."</p><p>"Oh, he does," Eret assured him, though his grin took on something of a sickly slant. "Mind, he's not exactly all there himself. He's the reason 'crazy dragon rider' is a theory people bandy about without laughing themselves silly."</p><p>"Any proof?"</p><p>"You like to ask questions, don't you?" Eret shot back. "He says he's seen them, half his men say so, but if the boss says to lie, they lie, and I've never seen it. Never been stupid enough to get close enough to find out. If you do, do me a favor and keep it to yourself. I like sleeping at night."</p><p>"And where do I find him?" Maour asked.</p><p>"Nah, I'm done answering questions," Eret quipped. They had arrived at the docks proper, and he pointed out a somewhat rickety old ship. "This one's mine, if you decide you want to sign on for some low-stakes dragon trapping. We're headed out tomorrow night. Aside from that, get lost." His voice was jovial, but Maour was pretty sure he had hit a nerve somewhere in his line of questioning, because there was no chance he was going to be allowed to hang around. There was something hard in Eret's gaze, hard and frightened.</p><p>"I might take you up on that," Maour said.</p><p>"You do that," Eret called back, having made his way up his ship's gangplank. "But I'm not taking you to meet Drago if you do. He doesn't like people who ask questions."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Von didn't like this island – it reeked of human waste, among other things – but she had to admit that the large, stone buildings were very nice. Not because they were nice to look at, or because they were useful, but because they had large, flat tops with plenty of space for her to prowl.</p><p>She leaped from rooftop to rooftop with no worry, confident that there was nobody below to see her, and that even if there was, the buildings were clustered so close together that she wasn't visible for more than a heartbeat at a time anyway. They were so high, too; she didn't think a normal Viking would be able to hit her with anything thrown, and most Vikings tended to default to throwing first.</p><p>Still, she checked the ground whenever she got a chance. She wasn't following Ruffnut or Maour, Ruffnut had gone inside almost immediately and Maour had lost her, but if she passed over them she would know.</p><p>In the meantime, she wasn't doing anything of importance. She was just the transportation; Maour and Ruffnut were doing the actual information-gathering. It wasn't like she could go down, toss on a cloak, and talk her way into something. Though that was an amusing mental image, and she could almost believe that some of the particularly inebriated Vikings would fall for it, were she able to speak their language. They came in a variety of body sizes, after all, and she could hunch over…</p><p>A light on a rooftop off to her left caught her attention, and she crouched down when she saw movement in front of it. Thin, tall shapes crossed the flat roof, stopping at an edge. There were three that she could see, one holding the torch, one holding something reflective, and the third standing closest to the edge, holding nothing at all.</p><p>Curiosity warred with caution, and curiosity won as she remembered, again, that she wasn't going to be able to do anything useful. Maybe eavesdropping would be useful. Maybe it would even help her find her brother. Put that way, she couldn't <em>not </em>try and listen in.</p><p>But the rooftops were flat, and what had seemed such a great advantage when she was the only one up here turned into a decided disadvantage now, when she was stalking prey on the same elevation as her. Taking off to fly over would be foolish, and going on paw wasn't much better. Being dark and quick gave her a chance, but if they looked the wrong way they would see her silhouette against the night sky, ruining her attempt at stealth and maybe making it hard for her to pick up Maour and Ruffnut later.</p><p>She settled for leaping around to approach from the side and hoping really hard that they were too wrapped up in whatever they were doing to look around and see her. By the time she was close enough to hunker down and listen, she was sure they were distracted; the voices weren't quiet at all.</p><p>"Two crates of swords, three of maces, and a dozen halberds," the man holding the light said loudly. "That's all you've got?"</p><p>"Business has been slow, and my suppliers dropped a shipment," the man nearest the edge of the roof said quickly. "There's no need for this <em>intimidation</em>, I am good for my word. I just need time to go back and obtain that which <em>my </em>suppliers lost. If you want to do good with your intimidating ways, come with me and lend a frightening face."</p><p>"Got guts," the man with the weapon said in a gravelly voice.</p><p>"Got our employer's gold and little to show for it, you mean," the one holding the torch corrected. "Drago works on a tight schedule, he doesn't have time for your delays. For all intents and purposes, the rest of this shipment is worthless to him because it was not delivered on time."</p><p>"The hazards of doing business out here," the cornered one laughed. Von was no expert on human emotions aside from Maour, but she was pretty sure he was thoroughly worried. Being backed up onto a ledge with no ability to fly and two angry men would do that. <em>She </em>had the occasional nightmare about falling off a cliff with broken wings, she was sure he would share that fear.</p><p>"Your hazards, not his," the man with the torch said. "We'll be taking the paltry amount you did procure…"</p><p>"Of course, of course," the cornered one agreed.</p><p>"... And all of your payment," the other finished. The one with the sword hefted it, turning it so that it flashed with reflected light. Von winced.</p><p>"That's totally… Reasonable." The cornered one held his hands out as the weapon menaced him. "Reasonable. Fine. Remuneration for any inconvenience. I would be nothing if it were not for my excellent customer service."</p><p>There was a little more to that conversation, but it was just a bunch of veiled threats like the ones Von had already heard. The cornered one, the seller of weapons, eventually descended down a trapdoor in the roof, but the other two didn't immediately follow.</p><p>"Now, Mush, we wait," the one with the torch said. "Do you know why?"</p><p>"So he can get the payment and bring it to us," the one with the sword, Mush, said.</p><p>"And why are we waiting up here?" the other asked patiently.</p><p>"To make him think we're not worried about him running," Mush answered. "You taught me this already."</p><p>"Repetition is the key to understanding," the other said sagely. "For us and scum like him alike. That and knowing who just needs killing, too. The boss is big on that."</p><p>"I'm still not sure on that one," Mush admitted.</p><p>"What isn't clear?" the other man asked.</p><p>"So, we're fighting dragons," Mush said. "Which I get. But we're buying trapped dragons. Which I would get if we ever did anything with 'em, but we've never been sent to shake down any buyers, so we're not sellin' 'em or sellin' the parts."</p><p>"It's not our place to question the boss, Mush," the other man warned. "It's our place to beat up the guys who ask too many questions, among other things."</p><p>"But shouldn't we know all the secrets we're protecting?" Mush asked. Von thought that he had a good point, and not just because Mush having all his organization's secrets explained to him now would also clue her in.</p><p>"Nah, can't give up a secret ye don't know." He thumped his boot on what Von thought was the trapdoor, though she couldn't quite see it. "Let's get down there now, while he's startin' to think about runnin' but hasn't done it yet. Fun to let 'im squirm, but don't want to let his nerve build up so far he actually tries."</p><p>"Aye, got it," Mush said as he followed his superior down. Von was reminded of Eldurhjarta teaching Eldurberg basic healing; they had the same dynamic, with one giving out advice and the other doing his best to absorb it all.</p><p>She returned to her exploration of the rooftops, hoping to happen across more clandestine meetings. The roofs weren't as empty and lifeless as she had thought.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>The sun did not show itself that morning, instead sending a heavy cover of clouds and rain in its place. Von wasn't about to tolerate that; the moment she had Ruffnut and Maour in her saddle, she made for the sky, the open sky, powering through the clouds to get there. She wouldn't have risked it in a storm, not with her fear of lightning so prominent in her mind, but simple sheets of rain posed no risk except wetness, and the reward was worth it.</p><p>"Sunlight, my greatest bane," Ruffnut hissed.</p><p>"Are you drunk?" Maour asked tiredly.</p><p>"Nope, just blind," Ruffnut quipped. "Hear anything useful?"</p><p>"Plenty, but I'm not sure what to do about any of it," Maour admitted. "You?"</p><p>"More than you," Ruffnut shot back. "You first."</p><p>'Me first,' Von intervened. 'I learned things too. There is someone named Drago buying weapons and dragons, and his own men do not know what he is doing with the dragons.'</p><p>"You sure his name wasn't Drag-ann?" Ruffnut slurred. "Or Draggin' Anders? My informant didn't know for sure."</p><p>"It's Drago," Maour confirmed. "I heard about him too, from a trapper who sells him dragons. Apparently, he's fighting a horde of dragons that are going around attacking for some reason. I also heard he thinks there's a dragon rider in that horde, but Eret didn't believe it."</p><p>"Stop stealing my thunder," Ruffnut complained. "Did you know there's a field of icebergs with a dragon nest in the center?"</p><p>'I did not hear that,' Von offered, mostly for Ruffnut's benefit. She was happy to feel useful, but not at the expense of making Ruffnut feel pointless.</p><p>"Yeah, it's crazy and impossible to get into with a ship," Ruffnut elaborated. "She wouldn't tell me where it is, exactly, but it's North of here."</p><p>"And so is Drago," Maour murmured. "If there's a whole nest as hostile as the Skrill, or even another Queen, this just got a whole lot harder to deal with."</p><p>'Two Skrill was already hard enough,' Von huffed. She was almost relieved to find that it was more complicated than that; with just the two Skrill, it had felt that any failing would by default be her own, because she was the only one able to fly and effectively fight them. Now that things were bigger than that, Maour could shine and she didn't have to worry so much about being the one to let everyone down.</p><p>"We've got hints, bits and pieces of knowledge, but not enough to understand what's going on," Maour decided after a short while. "The Skrill are probably involved in all of this-"</p><p>"Definitely, I got confirmation of that," Ruffnut interrupted. "Come on, that was my whole thing. I wouldn't be telling you about this place if I didn't know the Skrill were there."</p><p>"Anyway," Maour said firmly, "we need to know more. If there's a Queen, what the Skrill are in relation to the rest of that nest, why the dragons are attacking, whether we should expect them to be enemies or allies… We need to question a local dragon, and we should probably try and find the flock attacking everyone, in case there really is a rider to talk to."</p><p>'Are we going to be solving all of the problems around here before we find Kappi?' Von asked doubtfully. 'I want to save him, not help others, even if that makes me selfish.'</p><p>"The moment we know enough to make a good plan, we'll do it, but we need to know what we're flying into," Maour said. "Nothing more. We're not wasting any time."</p><p>"But if there is a Queen, Toothless might need some help of the legend-making variety," Ruffnut added. "I call being the one to kill the mountain-sized dragon!"</p><p>Von nodded agreeably. 'Yes, you do that. Maour and I will watch from a safe distance.'</p><p>"Nah, I meant me and you," Ruffnut said, leaning over to pat Von's side. "Maour already got his."</p><p>They flew onward, headed North, to find a place to rest, information, and Kappi, in that order. Von just hoped they weren't going to find out they were too late. That would be all her fault.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Author's Note</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>: Lots of hints toward bigger things built into this chapter. Anyone looking to infer things, keep in mind that our sources here aren't exactly reliable on their own, and that I'm not bound by the laws of canon on what might be up with any named characters you may recognize… Suffice to say I'm having </strong>
  <em>
    <strong>fun </strong>
  </em>
  <strong>with my interpretation of certain people. That'll become much clearer soon enough.</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Von liked the snow, particularly when there were fluffy, fat flakes that melted the moment they touched anything. There was an appeal to seeing the world coated in white, untouched and beautiful, sure to pass and leave the world unchanged. Well, the Mykers would make it their duty to leave no patch of snow untouched, using every bit of slush as ammunition in their prank wars, but until <em>then </em>it was beautiful.</p><p>She would have gladly endured a snowball to the face, back at home, with everything normal as it should be. That could not be so, though, not with her brother captured, miserable, maybe even– No, the Skrill would not fly him so far and <em>then</em> kill him. He had to be alive, she could not afford to believe anything else.</p><p>To dampen her spirits more, the swirling snow was not pretty or pleasant. Instead of fat snowflakes, it was fine, gritty like sand that blinded her and stung her nose. It was like dust in her lungs, and her chest ached from the freezing cold with every inhale. Even the heat of breathing fire at nothing only staved off the ache for so long.</p><p>"Can't see anything," Ruffnut said, her voice strangely lopsided. Von heard the mental component clearly, as she always did, but the actual sound was whipped away by the driving wind.</p><p>"Neither can I," Maour agreed. He was closer to her head, so his voice was less distorted.</p><p>Von squinted at the white-specked horizons, drab and grey clouds meeting equally drab seas, and saw nothing at all. Nothing…</p><p>An island, in the distance, its silhouette broken up and obscured by the driving snow. 'Straight ahead,' she said. 'On the horizon.'</p><p>"I give up," Ruffnut yelled. Von felt her slumping back. They had tried to make the saddle a little more comfortable for two people, which mostly consisted of Maour shoving it around and trying to work as much padding as possible under the part Ruffnut was sitting on, making it lumpy and misshapen. The end result was something she could feel against her lower back every time Ruffnut moved, annoyingly enough. "I can't see anything!"</p><p>"Take us in," Maour requested, ignoring Ruffnut. "We have to get out of this storm before it gets worse."</p><p>Von had already been planning on landing regardless; she didn't know exactly how long it had been since her last rest on a sea stack, but she was tired. Her wings weren't shaking under the effort – flying around with two humans on her back <em>was </em>making her stronger, slowly but surely – but they would be by the time she made it to the island.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Her wings were shaking, but not just from the cold. She was shivering from fear, too.</p><p>"I don't know <em>what</em> could do this, but I don't look forward to finding out," Maour said quietly as she glided over ice made <em>violent</em>.</p><p>There was no other word for it, none that fit. For all that the ice was still, unmoving, it had been formed with some sort of malevolent intent. Spears longer than she was and twice as thick stabbed into the ground of the island, jabbing like claws into flesh. Boulders of ice interspersed in a slick torrent had frozen in the act of pulverizing wooden buildings, solidifying them halfway between normal and nothing but splinters. The ice was not white, it was a speckled, untidy grey, brown, and blue, dirt and wooden bits and <em>other </em>things poking out from some surfaces and strewn on top of others. All was coated in a separate layer of gritty snow, but even that was discolored from the smoke rising from the other buildings, many of which had burned and were even now still smoldering. Worse, this was clearly a place of <em>living</em>, not fighting; there were no obvious weapons smoldering in the ruins, no catapults or more complex siege engines, no cages…</p><p>There were humans, down amid the wreckage. She could see a few bonfires that were placed in clearings, and she could see huddled shapes clustered around them. But this was not a village, not anymore. There wasn't enough left to call it that. A few buildings managed to avoid becoming a charred wreck or the site of an ice spire, and some of those stood in the shadow of the ice, in imminent danger of being crushed by falling pieces as it melted. She didn't need Maour's expertise to tell her that this place would need to be rebuilt from scratch.</p><p>She set down on the shore furthest from the village, though the island was small enough that the distance amounted to a very short walk. 'What now?' she asked. This island had no source of shelter except destroyed buildings, and even that was lackluster at best. She could sleep in the open, but it wouldn't be pleasant…</p><p>And more importantly, it seemed they had found exactly what they were looking for. The roaming dragon horde had struck this place, she would have bet her saddle on it. If this <em>wasn't </em>dragons, then there was something else even scarier lurking somewhere nearby, and she didn't even want to consider that.</p><p>"We're going to check that out," Ruffnut said, dropping down to stand on her own two feet. Her boots crunched in the snow and sand as she shuffled around, working the feeling back into her legs. Or so Von assumed, given how loudly she usually complained about that very thing at every other stop. Not this time, thankfully; whining about sore legs seemed foolish now.</p><p>"Definitely," Maour agreed solemnly, "but I don't think we're going to get any supplies here. The ice hit all of their storehouses and their great hall, if they had one. The only buildings left to burn were the huts."</p><p>'It sounds like it was targeted if that is the case,' Von noted.</p><p>"It was," Maour confirmed. "None of that was <em>random</em>. We'll ask someone about it, but I could tell as much just by how neat it was. Not a single ice blast hit anything outside of the village, and none were wasted on less important targets."</p><p>"Who was doing the blasting?" Ruffnut asked. "And can we get walking already? I'm going to freeze if I stand still too long."</p><p>"Von, if you stick to the ruins and stay out of sight…" Maour wiped his face of snow and grimaced. "They'll block the wind, at least."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Ash and snow mixed underfoot, slinging out as grey slush as Maour walked. Ruffnut was somewhere else in the destroyed village, seeking information, a place to get out of the wind, or just anything she found interesting. Von was shadowing her, or him, he hadn't asked. He tried to pull on the link to Toothless – he'd done so countless times, it was like an itch he couldn't scratch – and got nothing, same as every time before. There was nothing <em>there</em>, and Toothless was still far away, captive somewhere.</p><p>He had to be a captive, alive and safe. Maour refused to consider the alternatives, though they were possible, likely even. He wouldn't even entertain the possibility until he was standing in the middle of the Skrill lair, or wherever they made their homes. Even then, he'd be skeptical.</p><p>For now, though, he was stuck investigating this destruction. It bore no signs of lightning or anything Skrill-related, and the ice, though immensely worrying and something he would have been all over in different circumstances, was also irrelevant.</p><p>A piece of cloth, stained and torn, whipped back and forth from a spike of ice rising from the ground, moving like a flag. A macabre one, given he didn't think it was originally dark brown in color. The ice beneath, a massive hunk that was mostly opaque, sheltered a small fire and two women, one his age and one much older. They were huddled around it, holding their hands out and sharing a ragged blanket.</p><p>He approached the fire and sat opposite them, briefly looking around to confirm they were alone. The ice made a formerly flat and somewhat open village layout into a dangerous, confusing maze, and he couldn't see very far in any direction.</p><p>"Anyone see the dragon that did this?" he asked bluntly.</p><p>One of the women looked up; both had seen him approaching, but neither acknowledged him until now. She grunted rudely and glared at him. "Too busy hiding somewhere?" she accused.</p><p>He thought about saying that he had just arrived, then realized that the docks were trashed – ice and fire both, in different places – and that he hadn't seen any ships at all. "Heavy sleeper," he lied instead. "Woke up to smoke and wreckage."</p><p>"I'd say yer lucky," the woman spat, "but that's just 'cause you didn't live here, foreigner. We ain't comin' back from this. Not like last time."</p><p>"Last time there was no ice," the younger woman said quietly, poking a stick into the fire and letting it burn. "Just fire. Never thought it could be worse…"</p><p>"We weren't going to go for anything less," the old woman said. "Guess the demons knew it after we rebuilt the first time. I hope Drago gives 'em Hel when he gets 'ere."</p><p>"He follows them around," Maour said, recalling what they had learned at the last island. "Will he stop here, or just keep going?"</p><p>"Don' worry your scrawny behind," the older woman said condescendingly, "'E always stops on the islands that get attacked. Gonna be a lean few days 'till he gets 'ere, though. Got no food, no clean water…"</p><p>The younger woman shivered, pulling the blanket tighter around herself.</p><p>"The food storehouses were frozen over?" Maour asked sympathetically.</p><p>"Blown apart and then frozen," was the bitter reply. "No fancy meals for you. No meals at all. Hopefully Drago is as generous as the rumors say. Anyone who survived is going to have to beg for mercy and hitch a ride, if they're still lucid enough to do it."</p><p>"I might be able to go fishing for something," Maour offered, feeling oddly guilty. None of this was <em>his </em>doing, not even by association; he had no connection to the dragons doing this, even if he was more capable of understanding them than the average Viking.</p><p>"That would be nice…" the younger woman said quietly. "But fish don't bite around here. Nobody knows why."</p><p>'I could melt my way into a storehouse and find something edible for them,' Von offered from somewhere nearby. Maour resisted the urge to look around for where she was; she would be hidden well, so he wouldn't see her even if he tried.</p><p>"If you can do it without being seen, but wait for me," Maour muttered. "Then the storehouses," he said aloud, addressing the two women. "Maybe there's a way to break in."</p><p>"Go find someone with arms thicker than a toothpick," the older woman scoffed. "Freeloader."</p><p>"Maybe I will," Maour shot back. "But back to what I asked in the first place, did either of you see the dragon that did all of this?" He needed that information, and if Von could melt her way to enough food that these people wouldn't starve waiting for Drago, they would have questions he'd rather leave than try to answer.</p><p>"No, I was too busy staring at your ugly face and fake scale-armor," the old woman said, straightening up to more effectively glare at him.</p><p>"Big, bigger than any ship, white," the younger woman said at the same time. "Like a living mountain."</p><p>"Thank you." Maour left them to their fire and… whatever else they would be doing. Probably just sitting there feeling miserable.</p><p>He worked his way between a spike of ice and the burnt remnants of what looked like a market stall. The storehouses would be in the ice-struck part of the village, so he headed toward the middle of the icy maze. The occasional black blur leaping from place to place ahead of him indicated that Von was around, but she was silent. He didn't feel much like talking either, so he didn't mind.</p><p>A massive white dragon comparable to a small mountain that breathed ice… Or maybe freezing water that solidified after being spat out, given the way some things were frozen <em>in </em>the spikes he was walking past, not just smashed under them. It was a horrifying weapon at this scale, but he could imagine a smaller version being useful as a nonlethal weapon. No Viking could fight very well if his boots were frozen to the ground, or his hands frozen together…</p><p>But that wasn't what was happening here, not even close. This dragon was obliterating buildings and rendering islands uninhabitable, presumably travelling with the rest of the destructive horde. If he had ever doubted the tales he and Ruffnut had been told, this put those doubts to rest. There was no question that it was dragons doing the damage.</p><p>As for <em>why </em>they were attacking… Not food, not like back on Berk. Freezing the storehouses was the opposite of fighting for food. Unless they had melted their way in like he and Von were about to…</p><p>The wind howled, suddenly picking up, and Von revealed herself, walking out in front of him. 'Is this a storehouse?' she asked, nodding to the rugged chunk of ice to his right.</p><p>He turned to look at it, struggling to make out anything other than fractured wood and opaque ice. "Maybe, but I can't tell," he admitted. "Why do you think it might be?"</p><p>'It's bigger than most, and the other side has a few empty barrels that missed being frozen,' Von explained. 'We are going to melt enough for all of them, right? Not just so we can resupply?'</p><p>"Of course," Maour agreed. "And yeah, this one's worth checking." He began walking around it, looking for a wall or something else recognizable. Now that he was thinking about it, the violence with which the ice – or freezing water, as was his running theory – had struck would crush most edible things, but if they could find a mostly-intact barrel of fish, or yak jerky, that would be perfect.</p><p>'I did wonder,' Von murmured as she followed him. 'Every moment we spend here is one more we are not spending looking for him…'</p><p>"I'm not even sure where we should go next," Maour admitted. "It might be better to wait for Drago and find out where his fleet is headed. Or maybe we should just keep going North until we run into the iceberg field." They didn't <em>know </em>that Toothless was being held captive in the nest there, but it was the place to look. On the other hand, he didn't think Skrill usually hung around with dragons of other species, and Drago would be much more likely to have kept track of such dangerous dragons in particular… Not that he wanted to deal with the man, or his subordinates.</p><p>"Here," he suggested, slapping her tail against a face of the ice that was mostly flat and contained what looked a lot like a shattered, mangled doorway. The frame had buckled, smashed in from one corner, but he could crawl through if the interior was melted. The touch of this ice on his hand stung more than he expected, and he quickly stuck it under his other armpit to warm it up.</p><p>Von leaned forward and let out a searing blue-white flame, forcing Maour to look away. Water pooled around his boots and her paws. He looked around, checking that they were still alone, but all he saw was more ice.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>A fat drop of water hit Ruffnut in the face. She ignored it.</p><p>When <em>another </em>drop of water landed perfectly on her upper lip and fell into her nose, she sneezed and ignored it too.</p><p>The third one hit her on the eyelid. She struck out blindly, aiming for Tuffnut's stupid hand.</p><p>She hit waterlogged wood and almost broke her wrist. <em>That </em>got her up, cursing under her breath and narrowly avoiding smacking her head on the same wooden beam. She crawled out from her makeshift shelter inside a collapsed blacksmith's forge, glaring balefully at everything and everyone in her path, especially the tarp covering a big lump in the far corner.</p><p>"Don't say a word," she warned as Von's head poked out from under the tarp. Maour was under there somewhere with her, but Ruffnut had elected to take advantage of their circumstances and find her own place to sleep. She had bragged about it being warm and comfortable and <em>roomy</em>, whereas Maour was stuck under Von's wing.</p><p>'A word,' Von murmured halfheartedly. 'Is it dawn?'</p><p>"No clue," Ruffnut retorted, looking up. The many holes in the roof – including the newer one Von had created when she landed on what she mistakenly thought to be a stable perch – showed nothing but dull grey sky. "Is there any of that seal jerky left?"</p><p>'We still do not know whether it is actually seal,' Von warned. 'It's over with the rusty spears.'</p><p>"Oh, yeah," she said, remembering that she had slung it in that direction. The night before was a miserable blur of wandering around, seeing beaten-down people giving up hope, and then being found and told that Maour and Von had already done the only interesting thing on the island, and dug into a building to get food for the survivors. She had felt more than a little useless.</p><p>That was old Ruffnut. Today's new Ruffnut wasn't going to let old Ruffnut's frustrations get her down. It was a bright – well, dark and cloudy, but in her mind it was bright and if Von took them above the clouds it would be – new day, and she was going to do something awesome. Either to help Maour and Von, or just because she could, either worked.</p><p>"Did any of the guys you two met last night seem like they could use a charismatic leader to rally them?" she asked.</p><p>'A what?' Von huffed.</p><p>"Nevermind," she would take that as a yes. "See you later! Don't leave without me."</p><p>'The building is surrounded by ice,' Von reminded her.</p><p>"Every day should begin with a climb," Ruffnut retorted, hefting three of the old spears. The water damage was going to ruin them in a few days, but for now they'd do as climbing aids. She jabbed one into a fat ice boulder, then another, hauling herself up like she was practicing Thorston getaway tactics. A couple dozen stabs and lifts more, along with a few near misses to get the heart pumping, she was up on top of one of the taller spires blocking in their refuge. Her hands were going numb, and she had lost all but one of the spears, but she didn't care. Getting back down could be a problem for later. For now, she stared out over the ruined village, at the choppy ocean beyond…</p><p>And the massive fleet sailing by them. More than a score of grey, iron-plated warships were passing by, and a few had broken away to drop anchor by the ruined docks. She could see a small crowd of survivors there, clamoring and presumably requesting to be taken anywhere else.</p><p>"Hey, Drago's here!" she yelled down for Maour's benefit. His fleet certainly <em>looked </em>like the sort to be able to take on a dragon horde that came with a big ice-spitting dragon, but she wouldn't be sure until they saw it in action. Hopefully they would; flying around asking questions on islands was getting boring, and they had only done it twice. Either Drago or the dragons in the mysterious nest, someone was going to have some answers for them, and it wouldn't be a random villager who did nothing with his life.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless had <em>intended </em>to ask Grey about the Skrill first. Then their fellow prisoners, then the other inhabitants of the ice mountain, and then to go from whatever she told him.</p><p>Now, though, he had one far more pertinent question. He stared at the white mountain rising from the formerly much larger pool of water in the middle of the ice mountain, thrusting upward with spikes and mottled grey patches and no apparent order. It wasn't ice, far too opaque, but he had no idea what it actually was. The Queen looked nothing like this; her body had been recognizably dragon, albeit large. This looked like the egg of a mountain itself.</p><p>Grey wasn't even looking at it; she had just retrieved her meal and was cracking a few jokes Toothless didn't really get. Star and Hefnd had their backs to it, and Einn's eyes were closed, but Grey had to see the massive movement in her peripheral vision, like he had. The Skrill weren't reacting either, and the dragons out in the free part of the mountain were ignoring it even as they flew around it, though most gave it a respectful distance likely born of pure self-preservation.</p><p>He knew, logically, that their lack of reaction meant this was not some totally unknown thing happening for the first time. That didn't stop him from gaping at it for far too long, even after it stopped moving, a smaller mountain of white spikes amidst the verdant greenery and muted colors of the larger mountain that surrounded it.</p><p>'What is <em>that</em>?' he said.</p><p>'A three-legged honeysuckle bird,' Grey assured him. 'It just looks bigger than it actually is.'</p><p>He turned his disbelieving stare to her, unwilling to accept that. She snorted at him.</p><p>'It's just the biggest idiot of their happy nest,' Hefnd huffed irritably. 'Basically scenery that moves around and keeps things frozen. Not important.'</p><p>'Anything big enough to step on you and not notice is important,' Star said seriously. She cast Toothless a smoldering look he did his best to completely ignore. 'Though he might notice stepping on <em>you</em>.'</p><p>'I'm not that much bigger,' Toothless muttered. If <em>this </em>was the dragon that kept the ice mountain from melting… Well, he could believe it. He had assumed it was an entire group of them, a new kind he didn't know, not just one, but that assumption was based on the idea that one dragon couldn't make and maintain a mountain on their own. This one <em>was </em>a small mountain, so keeping up a slightly bigger one was entirely possible.</p><p>'It doesn't matter,' Hefnd said with a huff. 'That's that.'</p><p>'Grey?' Toothless asked, moving over to stand as close to the ice wall as possible, so as to get a better look. She followed him over, her movements oddly hesitant. 'What do you know?'</p><p>'Not much more than what they said,' Grey admitted freely. She pressed her nose to the ice and exhaled loudly, eyes locked on the massive white and grey form. It was shifting around, moving in the water. A trio of tiny dragons he didn't recognize were hopping from spike to spike as it moved. 'Big, does not talk to us often… I cannot say more.'</p><p>'Cannot?' he asked.</p><p>'No, I cannot tell you anything about him, because he told me not to,' Grey said quietly.</p><p>Toothless twitched, his muscles clenching involuntarily as the implication hit him. She wasn't just unwilling, but literally unable, which meant something was stopping her, and he knew what sort of compulsion made one unable to speak freely. This was a Queen, a different kind but still a Queen in the way that mattered, and everyone was under its control.</p><p>A Skrill – he didn't recognize which at this distance, though he doubted he could tell them all apart yet regardless of distance anyway – flew up to the Queen and cracked like thunder, lightning lancing up from its body.</p><p>The Queen turned, massive tusks plowing out of the water to arc up on either side of the flying ball of lightning, massive torrents of water following them up only to crash back down again. The Skrill landed on one of the tusks.</p><p>Toothless wanted to flee, melt a hole in the ice and run, but he knew it was pointless. He was well and truly trapped here, now more than ever. The tusks were turning toward him; the Skrill had brought him up.</p><p>'Looks like an early day for most of you,' the Skrill that had been watching over them announced, dropping down to land in their enclosure. Toothless turned just enough to look at him, while keeping the ponderous, slow-moving bulk of the Queen in the corner of his eye. 'Prepare for being dumped back in your holes, I do not want to smell your stench just because you were not prepared.'</p><p>Hefnd and Star made for the waste pit at the side of their enclosure, but Einn simply tensed and crouched, like he always did before they were picked up. The Skrill leaped forward and grabbed him, taking him back to his cell.</p><p>Toothless considered his options while the Skrill was busy, and by the time it had arrived he was crouching and doing his best to look like nothing interesting was happening. There was a tiny chance that if he was taken back with the others, the Queen might forget about him-</p><p>'Not you,' the Skrill huffed, grabbing Grey with his cruel talons. 'You're the reason for this. Get ready to face someone much more dangerous than either of us.' There was a resentful lilt to his voice, a cold mockery that did nothing at all to reassure Toothless.</p><p>The other Furies were removed from the area, one by one, as the massive white dragon turned and leaned forward. Toothless was left with nothing to do but watch as the two tusks, each large enough that they looked more like oddly shaped boulders than anything natural, one with a Skrill on top, approached rapidly.</p><p>The Skrill flew away as the tusks drew near, and Toothless backed up once he realized they weren't slowing down. The two points <em>smashed </em>through the thin ice wall, shattering it into countless shards, and came to a stop on either side of him, thumping down on hard stone.</p><p>Two large, black eyes appeared on the massive face, deep and dark. He immediately averted his gaze, as that was how he was formerly controlled by the Queen that he and Maour had killed years ago, but he knew that it was pointless if this Queen really wanted to enslave him. His only hope was that for some reason that wasn't about to happen.</p><p>'Another<em>,' </em>the massive dragon rumbled. The noise was a physical vibration that rattled Toothless through the tusks resting on the ground he was standing on. The mental component of the voice was soft-spoken in comparison<em>, merely </em>making his head ache. 'Like the others. Powerless.'</p><p>'In comparison to you?' he asked, desperately trying to appear less afraid than he was, more confident. He had no clue what attitude or response the Queen was looking for, so anything he said or did would be just as likely to be the wrong thing.</p><p>'To all, to your predecessors, to any above you,' the Queen said. 'You are a Usurper, and you are powerless under me. Trapped here, because I will it. Kept alive, because I will it.'</p><p>'Why bother?' he asked, doing his best to ignore the feeling that he was a gnat biting a dragon. If the Queen – though the mental voice was clearly male, so that would make this one a King – attacked, he could leap away and try to dodge, or he might be instantly smashed to a pulp, but that wasn't the same thing as being helpless, he had yet to lose his ability to act.</p><p>'I have power,' the King said, as if that explained everything. 'Power to make all do as I say. I say your kind should not be killed, they should be forced to suffer. I say it, so it is done.'</p><p>'Why us?' Toothless demanded. He bared his teeth at those dark eyes. 'I've done nothing to you.'</p><p>'Your kind has done <em>everything </em>to mine,' the King said firmly. 'To all of ours. Others may have forgotten, but I have not. Those who live here have been… <em>informed</em>… of what their predecessors failed to pass down. You have no allies here, no power, no hope. That is my will.'</p><p>There was a sudden crackle of lightning from right behind him, and he didn't dodge in time. A shock hit his behind, and while he convulsed the Skrill knocked him onto one of the massive tusks. He immediately closed his eyes, but talons pinned him down, forcing him to keep contact.</p><p>There was an earth-shaking growl, one that made his bones vibrate and his head ache abominably. 'You <em>know</em>,' the King ground out.</p><p>'Not my first time under a King with control issues,' he managed, suddenly hoping that this King would take that explanation and assume that was all it was, that he could keep Maour and his <em>other </em>forays into mental connections and the link secret.</p><p>'Where and when,' was the harsh response. 'Tell me!'</p><p>'West,' he said, lying through his teeth, 'and they're dead now. Someone better than me came in and killed them.' The last thing he wanted was for this new King to head down South and pick up where the last one left off, though a volcano really didn't seem like this one's preferred territory.</p><p>'Open your eyes,' the King ordered.</p><p>'I'd like to not repeat the experience,' he said.</p><p>'Now, or lose a limb.' The Skrill jabbed a talon into his hip, digging in near his back left leg. 'And then you will open them anyway.'</p><p>He hated to give in at all, but he wasn't willing to be permanently injured for nothing. Being controlled was, by comparison, relatively easy to fix. He didn't need another prosthetic, no matter how good Maour was at making them.</p><p>Even with all of the good reasons to comply, he still had trouble fighting through his disgust to force himself to open his eyes. When he did, he saw the black pits that passed for eyes… And he felt the link in his mind, a one-way connection that sickened him to his core, nothing at all like what he'd had with Maour, and all too similar to what the Queen had done to him.</p><p>'No speaking of me to others of your kind,' the King ordered.</p><p>He wouldn't be able to, now. Every order the King gave would be followed. It wasn't as invasive as being controlled directly, but it wasn't something that would go away when the King was distracted, either. A flood of orders were about to follow, stopping him from doing a dozen different things-</p><p>'You are powerless,' the King said again. Toothless fell to the ground as the tusk he had been pinned against lifted away. The King pulled back. 'Remember that.'</p><p>The Skrill grabbed Toothless and lifted him up, pulling him into the air, but Toothless couldn't care less. He held his breath until he was deposited into his cell, and even then he had a hard time believing what had just happened.</p><p>Not the order to not talk, or being controlled; those were obvious. What surprised him was the <em>lack </em>of more orders. He hadn't been told not to kill himself, or not to work against the King, or even not to try and kill the King or the Skrill. Most importantly, he hadn't been told not to knock himself out and be rid of the control, which was the first thing he intended to do…</p><p>When he could get away with it. There might be some trick, and just in case, he was going to be a little more subtle than ramming his head into the ice until he lost consciousness. But removing the control was going to be the first thing he did.</p><p>The second would be finding a way to never be controlled again, which would be much trickier. He was going to have to think about that.</p><p>
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    <strong>Author's Note: </strong>
  </em>
  <strong>Now we're getting into the thick of it all; the next few chapters are going to be fun. I've done some final planning, and I think this story will be roughly 34 chapters, including the epilogue, so we're about one third of the way through now.</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>'Today it's Condescending,' Star said.</p><p>Toothless stalled for time by ducking his head under the frigid water of their little pond, wondering what she meant. Only a day prior, he would have said she was just talking nonsense to annoy him, but now he knew they were all potentially under observation from inside their own heads. It could be some sort of code phrase the King wouldn't know, but other Night Furies would.</p><p>Not that <em>he </em>knew. He turned around and gave her a confused look. 'Is that a new kind of weather?' he asked innocently. 'I've never heard snow called that, but if you say so…' It wasn't like they would be getting any snow where they were, but maybe they would see some falling in from the opening at the very top of the mountain. Falling onto the already white mass in the center of everything, lurking ominously…</p><p>'No, her,' Star snorted, waving her tail in the direction of their Skrill overseer. She waved far more than necessary to get his attention, and he stubbornly refused to look at her tail or anything it was connected to.</p><p>'She is called Condescending?' he asked. He had gotten the names of their guards from Grey, but he'd yet to match said names to appearances. He couldn't pick her out from the rest of the Skrill if his life depended on it, and if asked, he would have guessed her name was Cold, based on her aloof presence.</p><p>'Yes, and she fits the name, so be ready for a different sort of entertainment when we eat today,' Star grumbled, unaware of his internal monologue about identifying Skrill. 'Maybe you will see the difference between fun and rude once you have seen her idea of a good time.'</p><p>'Maybe there won't be that much of a difference,' Toothless shot back. He wasn't about to concede that her cruel mockery of Grey was acceptable; he had made his opinion clear, and stood by it.</p><p>'Oh, there is,' Hefnd huffed from where he sat with his father. He sounded especially annoyed, which boded well for later. If he was already aggravated, Toothless wouldn't have to push him very hard to get what he wanted without raising suspicion.</p><p>'Whatever you say,' Toothless snorted. 'Got any details about the others?'</p><p>'We call her Condescending because she is,' Star said. 'The ones that brought you in were Sadistic and Angry, and the one who explained the rules was Tolerable. Cold hasn't been around much since you got here. There was another, but she was killed just before Einn got his vacation.' She shrugged her wings. 'Those names are all you really need to know. Grey wasn't clever about naming them, so their names match how they act. Not a surprise, really.'</p><p>He wasn't that surprised that Star thought so, but he was pretty sure no real person was as one-note as that. Even if they didn't act like it around their prisoners, all of the Skrill had to be more than a single word's worth of personality. If nothing else, he remembered Sadistic saying he hadn't always cared about hurting others.</p><p>'Not a surprise, because she is not clever about anything except her stupid jokes,' Star added after a moment, as if unsure whether he had fully appreciated the insult. He hadn't, of course.</p><p>She seemed to be expecting a response, but instead he grumbled noncommittally and turned away from her, hoping she would get the message and stop talking to him. Asking her to shut up or go away wouldn't work, no matter how much he wished it would.</p><p>Of course, staring out at the rest of the ice nest meant he was staring through something troubling in an entirely different way. The ice wall that divided his prison from the rest of the nest was back and thicker than ever, only partially translucent at the moment. Given the King had shattered it only a day before, he was surprised to see it repaired so soon… Surprised and just a little more desperate than before. The dark shadow it cast over him was both literal and metaphorical. So powerful, even without mind control, and all that power was at least tangentially devoted to keeping him captive.</p><p>'Nuzzle for your thoughts,' Star offered from behind him, her voice low and sultry.</p><p>'That's a threat, not an offer,' he grumbled rudely. Hefnd's annoyed huff told him he was on the right track, though he hadn't meant telling Star off to be part of his 'anger Hefnd into wanting to do something violent' strategy.</p><p>'I could make it a threat, if that is what you like,' Star hummed. 'Is it about the big, bad alpha? Feeling like a lesser male today?'</p><p>'No,' he said shortly. Then a thought came to mind, an idea for how to rid himself of the one-sided link the King put in his mind, and he stomped his paws a little, acting frustrated. 'A little. I cannot even do what I usually do to make myself feel better.'</p><p>'Sounds intriguing,' Star purred. 'What would that be?'</p><p>'There was this game I played with the rock-heads back home,' he explained, speaking quickly so that she wouldn't have time to sneak in any innuendo. 'Hefnd, you might like this. We would take turns knocking each others' heads into the ground, seeing who could knock the other out first.'</p><p>'Why would I like that?' Hefnd asked coldly, glaring at him from his spot next to his Sire.</p><p>'Seems like you'd be good at it, is all,' Toothless said casually, walking away from the pond. 'And it's not <em>fighting</em>, but I understand if you're scared to complete with one larger and stronger than you…'</p><p>Hefnd snorted indignantly and let out a low growl, aware that Star was watching them both with amusement. Backing down would be a display of weakness, exactly as Toothless had intended. His original plan had been to provoke Hefnd into a real fight, but that was foolish for a number of reasons that had occurred to him over the long, cold night. The Skrill would almost certainly come down to break it up before any real damage could be done, and Hefnd would be more likely to use his claws and teeth instead of what Toothless really wanted. A made-up game where knocking Toothless out was the only way for Hefnd to win was much better.</p><p>'Okay, I will try your stupid game,' Hefnd declared, standing and walking out to meet Toothless roughly where the Skrill always dropped their fish, the center of their enclosure. There was hard-packed dirt and stone beneath their paws, and nothing else. No little rocks, thankfully; this was going to hurt without adding complications.</p><p>Hefnd stalked up to face Toothless, teeth bared and eyes narrow. 'Rules?' he asked. 'So you cannot claim I won by cheating.'</p><p>'We go back and forth,' Toothless explained. He slid his paw across the ground between them, tracing a line on the stone. It didn't stay, not even where his paw passed over dirt, but he was just trying to get an idea across. 'No stepping over the line. One paw or two, your choice. You can hit or shove, but no pushing or hitting eyes or anywhere behind the ears.'</p><p>He was grateful, explaining his improvised rules, that the Myrkurs had made such an art form of knocking each other out whenever they wanted to mess with their links. He'd never done it to himself, but watching their antics had given him an idea of what was best, and listening to Eldurhjarta rant about the safety - or lack thereof - of such things had further refined his knowledge.</p><p>Hitting on the neck was very bad, and the same could be said for the eyes, for obvious reasons. The forehead was the hardest part of the head, at least for Night Furies, and the easiest way to knock someone unconscious was to drive the side of their head into a solid surface. Doing so tended to work, and without any side effects, though Eldurhjarta always said that repeated impacts could rattle even a Myrkur's brain around and do real damage. Thankfully, compared to humans, Night Furies were far more resilient; the Myrkurs had yet to suffer any noticeable injuries, and they'd been messing around with their links for years now.</p><p>'Smashing your smug little face into the ground sounds fun,' Heffend said, far too eager for what would be a limited amount of violence against a fellow prisoner. Toothless wasn't looking forward to hurting Hefnd… much. Maybe a little. The other male was frustrating.</p><p>'Yes, but you get only one single hit during your turn, and going too far and killing me will not end well for you, of course.' He wasn't too worried about that happening, if only because Hefnd looked scrawny and thus probably didn't weigh too much, but it was a distant possibility.</p><p>'Can't beat you again later if you can never get back up from my first win,' Hefnd agreed, casting a nervous glance back at Condescending, who seemed half asleep on her perch, her head nodding. 'Have no fear of that. This is a <em>friendly</em> competition.' He snorted rudely, little speckles of snot hitting the ground between them. Toothless wondered if he was sick, or just intentionally trying to be disgusting.</p><p>'A friendly competition where we try to knock each other senseless,' Toothless agreed. 'Any other questions?'</p><p>'Who goes first?' Star asked from the sidelines of their little standoff.</p><p>'Hefnd can,' Toothless offered. If he wanted it to be fair he would have suggested some way to randomly decide who got that advantage, but he just wanted Hefnd to win, so letting the other male have the first strike was fine.</p><p>Hefnd stomped his paws, one after the other, and settled into a low stance. He raised his right paw, then lowered it and raised his left, all without breaking eye contact. Toothless supposed he was meant to be intimidated, but instead he was just impatient.</p><p>'You won't be so confident when I'm done with you,' Hefnd growled, settling on his right paw and reaching his left out to hang over Toothless' head. Then he slapped down.</p><p>Paw met forehead, chin met ground with a harsh smack. Toothless sprawled out, his ears ringing and his jaw hurting but otherwise unaffected. It hadn't even hurt <em>that </em>much; Hefnd really wasn't very strong.</p><p>'Make it obvious this isn't a fight before Condescending comes down here,' Star hissed.</p><p>Toothless hauled himself up, shook his wings out, and nodded agreeably in Hefnd's general direction. 'Trying to break my jaw? Let me show you something a little more impressive. Ready?'</p><p>'Ready,' Hefnd growled, closing his eyes and scrunching his face up. He looked even angrier with his eyes closed.</p><p>Toothless reared back, pulled both paws up, and came down on Hefnd, angling to strike from the left. He "pulled his punches", as Maour would have called it, softening the hit as much as he thought was reasonable, but Hefnd still collapsed like a crumbling rock, every joint folding at the same time. For a moment, Toothless worried that he had accidentally won. He hadn't planned for <em>that</em>.</p><p>Then Hefnd snarled and stood, and his worries were alleviated. 'That was weak,' Hefnd asserted. 'My turn.'</p><p>Toothless braced for impact. He watched as Hefnd shuffled on his paws, lifted one, dropped it again, then swung a <em>wing </em>out, turning and twisting so that the hard leading edge struck the side of his head–</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless blinked blearily, the world spinning under him, and felt a massive, throbbing pain in the side of his head, right above where his jaw met the rest of his head. He heard something crackling nearby, like frosted grass being crushed underpaw, but with an ominous resonance.</p><p>He also felt the absence of any foreign presence in his head, benign or malevolent. It was amazing how <em>good </em>that lack of a presence could feel, where he had been agonizing over it only a few days ago. Apparently, he only needed a reminder as to how horrible having someone he <em>didn't </em>want looking over his shoulder privy to everything he experienced.</p><p>'Up, foolish one,' a cold female said to somebody. He groaned as something in his tail jolted unpleasantly, wondering what Hefnd had done after knocking him out. A hit to the head shouldn't have hurt his tail-</p><p>The jolt turned into a spasm, and he yelped as the shocks spread, now obviously coming from outside him. He staggered forward a few steps, whipping his tail out of harm's way, and <em>tried</em> to turn to face his tormentor.</p><p>Instead, he face-planted in the hard dirt. If it weren't for having gotten what he really wanted, he would have been really frustrated by that. As it was, he held in a satisfied purr and settled for planting his paws more firmly and turning carefully, undeterred by the dizziness assaulting his senses.</p><p>The Skrill, who looked no different from the others he had seen, to the point where he would never have known she was female if it weren't for her voice and being told outright, tapped a pair of talons on stone, clicking them together impatiently. 'What was this?' she asked coldly. 'We do not allow fighting.'</p><p>'Wasn't a fight,' he rumbled. 'Contest. 'The rock heads had been impressed by my fortitude. Hefnd is stronger than I thought.' That was the story, and he was sticking to it. He didn't have it in him to pout, but pretending it didn't bother him – which it didn't – worked too.</p><p>'Stupid games get stupid rewards,' she hummed threateningly. 'No hurting yourselves or each other, no matter how much it seems like a good idea at the time. I had thought that would be obvious, but I suppose your little heads can only hold so much.'</p><p>'I will try to remember,' he huffed, gingerly pawing at his injury for emphasis. Now he knew why Condescending had her name; the first thing she ever said to him perfectly fit the title. He wondered if the Skrill intentionally played into the names they had been given, as that seemed a little too perfect. He would have, if he was in their place, just for something to do.</p><p>'Now run along and do something less self-destructive,' she instructed, a duo of seeking tendrils of lightning snapping out from her talons and toward him, though they stopped and ceased to exist long before reaching him, leaving only a loud snapping sound and the faint smell of a lightning strike. 'It is almost time for your feeding.'</p><p>He watched as she took off, disgruntlement breaking through his hidden satisfaction. Hopefully she wouldn't have much cause to interact with him in the future; her way of speaking down to him was already getting on his nerves. It reminded him of how the Queen had treated her captives, as if they were lesser…</p><p>At least he had taken a step toward ensuring he wouldn't be under another's control like that again. He looked out at the ice nest, and the white mountain lurking in the center. Two big tusks lay motionless on the ground near the pool, and there was a small swarm of little dragons playing around them. The King's body moved slowly, rhythmically, and his breathing could be heard, a deep rumble underlying the other noises of the nest.</p><p>He was asleep, and apparently losing one of his many, many subjects wasn't enough to wake him. When he did wake, he probably wouldn't notice.</p><p>'I won,' Hefnd called out from the edge of the pond, having triumphantly returned to his usual spot. Star was entangled with him, her tail and paws all over him, which Toothless assumed was her way of rewarding the victor.</p><p>That made it seem like she considered their little contest a fight over her. He certainly hadn't meant it that way, and that she did made him even happier he had lost. The last thing he needed was Star throwing herself at him for any reason.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Star threw herself bodily in Toothless' direction, and he had to jump back to avoid being tackled. She barked wordlessly at him, her tail swaying happily-</p><p>'Good!' Condescending declared. 'Very good.'</p><p>Star's tail fell like a limp fish, and she quickly retreated, tossing her head irritably. Toothless had never seen her so angry or humiliated, and he totally understood why she felt that way. Condescending, as it turned out, was not a name that solely referred to the Skrill's way of <em>talking </em>to them. It also referred to what he understood to be a regular event when she was watching them.</p><p>Condescending shifted her attention. 'Surly, roll over.' Hefnd reluctantly complied, all but throwing his body into the motion to be done with it.</p><p>'Good boy. Beg.' Hefnd let out a genuine whine of frustration as he sat up on his hind legs, eyes on the ground, his body drooping like–</p><p>A bolt of lightning struck him, and he flopped on his back before recovering with a snarl. 'Let's try that again,' Condescending sighed. 'Surly, <em>beg</em>.'</p><p>Toothless grimaced as Hefnd resumed the begging posture, his back straight, eyes on Condescending, and a much more convincing plaintive whine coming out.</p><p>'Good boy.' Condescending rolled her eyes 'Eventually.' She looked at Grey. 'Desolate, play dead.'</p><p>Toothless averted his eyes, not wanting to stare at her bare underside or watch her make a fool of herself in front of everyone for the Skrill's amusement. Again. Still, out of the corner of his eye, he could see her put a lot of feigned enthusiasm into the act of rolling over onto her back and holding herself with her paws limp in the air.</p><p>'Good girl!' The Skrill said with genuine enthusiasm.</p><p>Condescending shifted her gaze to Toothless. 'Hrrr, don't want to overload the new one. Let's have you… beg.'</p><p>Toothless glared at the Skrill. 'And if I don–'</p><p>'I want to eat!' Star snapped rudely. She glared at him. 'She <em>can</em> do worse, like deny us food by shocking anyone who touches it.' Toothless heard his stomach gurgle at the very thought of not being allowed any of the tantalizing fish sitting in front of him.</p><p>A shock ran through Toothless, and he found himself floundering on his back for a moment before the spasming subsided and he could stand again.</p><p>'I taught a new trick in record time!' Condescending crowed. 'I'm so good at this!' Her look turned sinister. 'I'm in a good mood, so I'll let you all eat if the new one begs and makes it <em>very, very</em> convincing.'</p><p>Toothless felt all eyes intently on him. He felt like snarling and shooting a fireball at Condescending, but he knew that the other Skrill were not far away, so he forced himself to assume the begging position that Hefnd had demonstrated, with his front paws dropping and his head tilted to the side. It took a lot of effort, but he managed to whine petulantly instead of roar defiantly.</p><p>'Good boy!' she purred, her body crackling with tiny bolts of lightning for no apparent reason. 'Eat up, everyone!' She flapped away, leaving them to their meal… and their humiliation.</p><p>'That is the only reason she is better than Sadistic, but it still makes her the third worst,' Hefnd growled. He bit one of the larger fish in half and swallowed it before gathering up his share and his father's and walking away.</p><p>'Cold is the absolute worst,' Grey added as Star left. 'He likes to have us put back early, so he can sleep instead of watching us. We do not <em>get </em>food unless someone else remembers to check on him.'</p><p>'I'm not looking forward to that,' Toothless admitted between careful bites. Careful because he was already learning to savor his food, and didn't want to finish it too quickly. He remained by the original fish pile, keeping Grey company. One of the few upsides of Condescending's regular 'practice' for them was Grey didn't seem to want to crack any jokes, so he didn't have to watch another cringe-inducing performance.</p><p>'Well, you could just knock yourself out and skip it,' Grey quipped. 'If you wanted to sleep the day away, you needed to have Hefnd hit you harder.' She swallowed the last bit of her fish and licked her paws, then looked over at him with wide eyes. 'Why did you do that, anyway? You could not possibly have lost to him if you were really trying, you have so much more weight.'</p><p>'Are you calling me fat?' he joked.</p><p>'Maybe…' She glanced over her shoulder at her rock pile, but made no move to retreat to it.</p><p>'Let's just say I wanted a little alone time in my own head,' he murmured, flicking his tail in the direction of the sleeping King.</p><p>'That was smart,' Grey hummed. 'He doesn't bother putting it back if you lose it. We are talking about… Hefnd's pet rock, right?'</p><p>Toothless resisted checking the Skrill's perch; if she was watching them, that would just make them look suspicious. 'Yes, his pet rock,' he readily agreed, latching onto Grey's proposed code for the link that the King had put in his head. 'I was trying to get it off my mind. I hope he doesn't show it to me again.'</p><p>'He doesn't bother. Once you've seen it, that's enough for him. He never does anything with it.' Grey shrugged her wings, a movement that emphasized the crooked bend in them, at least to his eye. 'He never <em>uses </em>it. I forgot about it a while ago, and he has not noticed.'</p><p>'Really?' That certainly boded well for his chances of escaping notice. 'I guess part two of my plan for not thinking about his rock isn't needed, then.'</p><p>'What was part two going to be?' Grey asked conversationally. She turned to walk back to her hideaway, but didn't actually start moving until he got up to walk with her.</p><p>'A stupid idea that probably would not have worked,' he admitted. He didn't understand how the link in all of its complexities actually <em>worked</em>; his plan had mostly just been the natural outgrowth of him only knowing how to do one thing of his own volition.</p><p>'But what stupid idea?' she pressed.</p><p>'I…' He cast around at the edge of her rock pile until he had found a small rock, then dug his claws in the dirt to draw a circle around it. 'Look, it's like this. The circle is my mind. The rock is Hefnd's rock.'</p><p>'It fills your head,' Grey observed, sounding for all the world like she actually believed their deception. He had to hope she was playing along, not actually confused. With her, there was no way to know.</p><p>'So I got his rock out of my head,' Toothless narrated, pushing the pebble out and then flicking it away for good emphasis. It clacked against the ice wall. 'But I have this other rock, see,' he continued, finding another rock of similar size in the debris and bringing it back. Grey watched intently. 'I was hoping to put that rock in instead.'</p><p>'So there is no more room if Hefnd wants to make you think about his,' Grey hummed. 'You have a rock of your own?'</p><p>'Not on my own, but I can make one with someone else. Two, really, one for each of us,' he explained. They were getting into potentially dangerous territory, as he suspected that this was something nobody else in this nest knew, but he felt he could trust Grey to keep it secret, if only because it was already so hard to get her talking directly about anything serious. This was the longest she had gone on a single topic, and he suspected it was only because they had the deception to keep up that he had kept her on the subject.</p><p>'And… wait.' She ran over to the ice wall and retrieved the fallen pebble, bringing it back clutched between her claws. 'What if Hefnd does this?'</p><p>She stuck her paw down, dropped Hefnd's pebble right next to the circle with his in it, and then used Hefnd's pebble to push the other out.</p><p>'That was why it was a stupid idea,' he conceded. 'I don't know if Hefnd can do that. All I know is that there's only room for one.' In fact, he didn't <em>know </em>that, either, though he was pretty sure it was true. The Myrkurs and twins had tried so hard to create multiple links in one person, only to be met with failure, and he had no reason to think it would be different with the King's kind of link.</p><p>'That's not the only reason it was stupid,' Grey commented. 'Hefnd could just push your rock out as easily as you pushed out his.'</p><p>'Yes…' He suppressed a groan. It seemed his plan had been even stupider than he had thought. 'Good thing none of that matters now anyway.'</p><p>'I am interested in this rock you would be making,' Grey objected, pawing at the rock he had put into the circle to signify him making a link with someone else. 'What does it do?'</p><p>'It's a rock, it sits there and takes up space,' he offered. If she was actually asking about a rock, she would take that and not–</p><p>'I mean what does it <em>really </em>do,' she said quietly, her ears falling a little.</p><p>'It's similar to Hefnd's rock, but not as big. You can see the rock, taste, smell, touch, even hear it, but you cannot control it. I would give my rock to another, and they would give me theirs.'</p><p>'You were going to do it with me?' Grey asked, perking up. 'Not Star or Hefnd or Einn?'</p><p>'You're the only one I'm on good terms with,' Toothless assured her, trying to keep his voice down. 'Einn doesn't talk and got me into this mess, Hefnd is frustrating, and Star acts like I've never met a female before in my life.'</p><p>Grey snorted at that. 'You could see my rock? Through my eyes?'</p><p>Toothless nodded. 'And you me, but you would know if I was using your rock,' he clarified. The last thing he needed was to come across as some creep trying to push into her privacy. She hid from all eyes for most of every day; he knew better than to let her think he was trying to get a look inside her sanctuary. That seemed like the sort of thing that would scare her off for good, and then he would feel horrible.</p><p>'Weird,' she said after a moment. 'Can we do that anyway? It sounds interesting.'</p><p>Somehow, he hadn't seen that request coming, and it took him totally by surprise. He stalled by scratching another circle into the dirt and sticking a rock in it, thinking the request over. On the one paw, there was no <em>need </em>now, and the link was something he'd only ever shared with Maour. On the other, Grey wanted to experience it, and it <em>would </em>open up some options for coordination that they might need for whatever plan they eventually came up with to escape. If they had an open line of communication they could maybe pull off complicated deceptions, things that relied on their captors not understanding what they could do…</p><p>And if it helped him get back to his family, who was he to spurn it? Maour was the one who was always pushing for the link to be seen as something sacred between friends, not to be misused or abused, and even he would say this was a good idea, strategically speaking. There was even an ironic parallel if he made a link with Grey here; he had already mentally compared their situation to how he and Maour had met.</p><p>'If you really want to,' he finally said.</p><p>Grey nodded vigorously, her attempt at acting serious only slightly hampered by her wide eyes and wildly swaying tail.</p><p>'And if you decide you don't like it, I'll just have to challenge Hefnd to a rematch,' he added, abruptly feeling that he was trying to explain something serious to Fora or Vern, with all the understanding of consequences that it implied. Grey almost certainly didn't get how important and solemn this sort of thing was…</p><p>But she <em>was </em>an adult, and she would learn, and in the meantime it might somehow help them get out of this place. 'That said, we can try it,' he concluded.</p><p>'Right now?' Grey pressed. 'How does it work? Can I do it, or do you have to, or is it something that needs both of us, or do we have to trick the King into doing it for us–'</p><p>'None of that,' Toothless snorted. It would be as simple as touching her while looking into her eyes, then they would both collapse with a headache for a moment… which might be a problem if they wanted to keep this secret. Already, he could feel eyes on his back and knew that <em>someone </em>was watching. Grey loitering outside of her hiding place was not normal, and anything abnormal drew attention.</p><p>'You go into there,' he instructed with a gesture toward her usual hideout, coming up with a plan on the fly. 'Then hold out your paw, and I'll show you my rock.' They could play off <em>his </em>collapse as lingering dizziness from his recent head trauma. She would have to be surprised at collapsing from this; warning her wasn't worth the risk of being overheard and making the Skrill think about it.</p><p>'Got it!' she chirped, turning to wiggle her way under the hanging rocks that made up the very low-hanging entrance to her place of refuge. He watched as she crawled in, feeling claustrophobic just looking. He still didn't think he <em>could </em>get in without upsetting the balance of the pile and getting himself crushed, but she was thin and flat enough to barely make it.</p><p>There was a shuffling noise, and he bent over to look inside. Her eyes, light purple around the large, blocky pupils, stared back at him. A paw was proffered, just within reach if he leaned forward.</p><p>'I don't think I can follow you there,' he said loudly, making a show of crouching and leaning forward, sticking a paw in to touch hers. Their eyes met.</p><p>He hadn't made a link in a long time, but it wasn't a process he could forget. Part of it was willpower, forcing something into being, but another part was reaching out with his mind, drawing a trail of nothing from his head to hers, directly into her eyes and what lay beyond-</p><p>It was there, and the headache was there with it. He saw himself for an instant, then managed to pull away from the new bundle of senses in the back of his head before collapsing.</p><p>It had been so long that he didn't entirely remember the last time he had felt this way. It <em>seemed </em>to go away quicker than before, but there was no way for him to be sure. Once the sharp pains faded to something bearable, he stumbled to his paws and growled loudly. 'Okay,' he announced to nobody in particular, 'maybe it was a stupid game.'</p><p>'Can't take my strength?' Hefnd called out smugly, giving away that he, at least, had been watching them.</p><p>'Not everyone has a skull as thick as yours,' Toothless retorted.</p><p>He felt, in the back of his head, a familiar sensation. Someone trying to see through his eyes. It was interesting, and a little disconcerting, that he couldn't feel any real difference between Grey's link and the one he'd had with Maour; the sensation was exactly the same. Maybe because he had created both, or maybe because neither of them was a King or Queen, whose invasions definitely had a different feeling entirely.</p><p>It was soothing, having that familiar presence back, but he didn't let himself fall into that trap. Grey wasn't Maour, and he wasn't satisfied with this. They were going to break out of this terrible place, freeing everyone trapped here, whether or not he liked them personally and then he was going to find Maour and Von and they were going to go home.</p><p>'You must have a thick skull, to have suggested that game in the first place,' Hefnd belatedly retorted.</p><p>Toothless shook his head and walked off to find somewhere pleasant to sit. He knew from experience that Grey was going to be spending some time experimenting with her new senses - his senses - and he might as well be comfortable while that happened. There was no grass, but he found a nice patch of smooth stone that wasn't littered with irritating little pebbles, and had a good view of the newly reinforced ice wall.</p><p>Grey was using all of his senses to their utmost, including feeling and taste. He let her do that for a little bit, then began murmuring to himself. 'You can probably drop taste and feeling,' he said. 'Neither of those are useful.' After he spoke, he opened himself to her hearing, just enough to catch any reply she might give.</p><p>She didn't release her grip on his senses in any way, or reply. As far as he could tell, she was slumped limply in her little hideaway, completely caught up in the sensation.</p><p>'Okay, do what you want,' he conceded. 'But we're going to have to discuss boundaries soon enough.' For now, he was content to let the novelty wear off on its own. He had a lot of thinking to do about how this link might be used to circumnavigate the obstacles they faced. The King was, if Grey was to be believed, not likely to notice anything amiss, but that left the Skrill, the ice nest itself, and their total lack of options even if they made it out.</p><p>None of those seemed like things the link could help with, but he had spent too much time around his friends and family to think that meant there really was nothing it could do. Though he wished he had Heather and Einfari and Maour here to talk him through it…</p><p>Grey remained silent, caught up in whatever it was about his senses that had her so enraptured. He hoped he hadn't made a mistake in making a link with her.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>It was dusk, or close enough to it that Condescending was beginning the process of snatching them and putting them in their icy pits for the night. This was a problem.</p><p>Toothless ignored the sudden shock of ice on his paws as he was dropped. 'Grey,' he hissed, 'you have to come out into the open to be picked up, and you can't do that while you're doing this.' She had yet to back off from his senses, and he knew from experience that moving while feeling someone else's body was almost impossible without a <em>lot </em>of practice.</p><p>He got no response, as he had come to expect, but that wasn't acceptable. He <em>knew </em>she could hear him. She was still experiencing all of his senses to the fullest.</p><p>'Come out, come out, wherever you are,' Condescending roared threateningly.</p><p>Toothless braced himself and pressed his wings against the ice. He usually avoided doing exactly that, as his wing membrane was extremely sensitive and it hurt like crazy, but this was an emergency. He held them there, gasping and panting as the cold invaded him-</p><p>'Okay!' Grey barked from her hiding place, abruptly dropping all connection to him. A few moments later, Condescending soared overhead with a distinct shape in her talons, and Grey thumped down in her own cell.</p><p>Toothless was glad he had gotten through to her – distant worries about the link somehow breaking something in her were already disappearing – but he wasn't content to let it rest there. 'Now we should talk about rules,' he said quietly. She was already going back to using his senses over her own, though he noticed that she was leaving touch alone for the moment, probably because he still had his wings pressed to the ice–</p><p>He belatedly yanked his wings away and did his best to press them against his back. He would be feeling the cold all night, probably.</p><p>'Okay,' Grey repeated morosely.</p><p>'You want to keep hearing open a little bit at all times,' Toothless instructed, sensing that she didn't want to talk about her apparent fascination with his senses. 'So we can communicate no matter where we are.'</p><p>'Done,' Grey agreed.</p><p>'Other than that, though, you want to not use my senses, or vice versa, unless there is a reason,' he suggested. 'I know when you are doing it, but there are some things I just do not want a spectator for, and I am sure you feel the same.'</p><p>'You feel so nice and warm…' Grey said slowly, quietly, with all the reluctance that was usually absent from her personality.</p><p>'I'm freezing cold right about now,' he said.</p><p>'Not compared to how I feel,' she retorted. 'You have scales, you have body fat. I got lost in the moment. It won't happen again.'</p><p>He wasn't sure how to respond to that; on the one paw, if she was actually so cold she considered his frigid existence to be warm, he could empathize with her preferring his body's feeling over her own. On the other, letting her lie senseless in her hideout all day, every day was just asking for trouble, either from the Skrill or from just neglecting her own body.</p><p>'So long as you ask and explain, we'll see what works best,' he decided, effectively postponing dealing with that particular problem until the next time it came up–</p><p>'Can I feel you tonight?' Grey immediately asked.</p><p>'I… yes.' He would just be trying to sleep, there was nothing awkward about it. Though he was hoping this wasn't the start of a pattern…</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Author's Note</strong>
  </em>
  <strong>: Oh, Toothless. You really don't know what you've just gotten yourself into. Ah well, at least it can't be worse than the predicament you're already in. Probably.</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>Something was going on in the ice nest; Toothless couldn't be sure, especially with his view still somewhat blurred thanks to the thicker ice wall, but he thought there were more dragons flying in than there had been flying out to fish for their morning meal. A lot more. A veritable swarm of wings and tails dropping from above, as opposed to the trickle that had left earlier.</p><p>'What's going on here?' he murmured, knowing that Grey could hear him. She had backed off his sense of touch for the time being, if only because returning to her own body after a night of ignoring it was apparently an unpleasant experience, but she was still listening and watching from her hideout.</p><p>'The fighting dragons are back,' Grey chirped in his ear, 'and that means it's time for the inter-nest brawl. Who will win, the Skrill or one four-winged nightmare owl?'</p><p>'Is that a serious question?' He didn't think the blurry shapes were fighting, but it wouldn't surprise him if the King staged mock-combat for his own entertainment. That was the sort of thing he could imagine the Queen doing if she didn't have <em>real </em>combat to sate herself with–</p><p>'Wait,' he huffed, 'fighting dragons? They go out and fight someone else?'</p><p>'Yes, humans,' Grey confirmed. 'Which seems really hypocritical to me, given the leader of their fighting dragons keeps one as a pet, but I guess you can't account for owl-dragon being weird.'</p><p>Toothless was getting used to being slammed with revelations from every direction, but that didn't mean he liked the feeling. In this case, he was too bewildered and jaded from the <em>last </em>time he'd been surprised to immediately jump on <em>that </em>impossibility. Instead, he calmly approached the ice wall and did his best to compensate for the lack of clarity by leaning in and staring really hard.</p><p>'You can rub your paw on it and get a better look,' Grey remarked.</p><p>He did so, taking care to avoid scratching it. There was still a warping effect, but some of the cloudiness went away, and he could see well enough to tell dragon-shapes apart. 'Now, help me find this human and owl-dragon,' he requested. 'Also, tell me what an owl is.'</p><p>'Owls are birds that don't have necks, but they can spin their heads all the way around,' Grey explained in a serious voice. 'Look for a big orange-brown blob with too many wings. It will probably be near the King. Why do you call him that, anyway? It fits, I like the name, but the Skrill just call him the alpha.'</p><p>'I call him the King because the last one I met insisted on being called a Queen, and she held a nest under her sway too,' he said, straining to spot the dragon Grey had described. 'Also, birds that can turn their heads all the way around? I'm not sure I believe you.' If they did exist, there were none on the Isle of Night. Which made sense, there wasn't much of anything on the Isle aside from small birds and critters, but still. Such a strange bird seemed more likely to be one of Grey's jokes.</p><p>'They do exist, I saw one once– there!' There was a pause while Grey figured out why Toothless wasn't moving. 'Oh. Down, left, on the shore by where his tusks always go when he's asleep.'</p><p>Sure enough, there was a large orange-brown blob where Grey indicated. Toothless didn't see anything that would indicate extra wings, but he assumed they were just hidden. Far more interesting was the thin, colorful figure scrabbling off the four-winged dragon's back and up onto a tusk that had just been lowered into reach.</p><p>'What do you know about this human?' he asked. 'And why does it walk on all fours? They tend to only use two legs, like a Nadder.'</p><p>'I know plenty,' Grey said bitterly. 'It has been around for at least as long as I have. The four-wing gets snappy if it plays with any other dragon. The King likes it. Whenever a fighting flock goes out, it and the four-wing are there. The Skrill ignore it. The rest of the nest likes it, or at least do not care about it, even though it's clearly a human trying to act like one of them, not actually a dragon.'</p><p>Toothless thought about that, and how Night Furies were treated in this same nest. Grey's bitterness made sense. 'They'll accept a human among them, but not us,' he said softly.</p><p>'Not us,' Grey agreed sullenly. 'It's not fair.'</p><p>'It's not fair,' he agreed, 'but it might be useful. Humans can't be controlled like we can,' as far as he knew… 'I think,' he clarified, feeling sick to his stomach. 'I <em>hope</em> they cannot.' He'd never had cause to question that, but what he was seeing now… It certainly seemed more likely that a human had gotten caught and put under orders. Scrabbling around on all fours and not having anyone to talk to couldn't be preferable to living with their own kind, not without a link to aid in translation. Since Night Furies were the only ones who could do that, this human definitely didn't have one.</p><p>'It doesn't really matter, that human despises us just like the Skrill,' Grey informed him. 'It goes around fixing shredded wings and other injuries, but when <em>we </em>get hurt it doesn't care.'</p><p>'Sounds like you've spent a lot of time watching it,' Toothless murmured.</p><p>'Until it got boring,' Grey said far too cheerily, her mood snapping back so quickly Toothless was entirely certain it wasn't genuine. 'There's only so much of a human pretending to be a dragon that one can stand before it gets repetitive. They still have not figured out how to fly on their own or breathe fire, so they cannot do any of the interesting things anyway.'</p><p>'No, but they have other skills,' he murmured, a thought occurring to him. 'This might be useful.'</p><p>Grey watched silently – another piece of evidence in favor of her uptick in mood being fake, she only went silent when she was upset – as he turned around and found a patch of smooth dirt. It was good she was quiet, because he needed to concentrate.</p><p>He had spent entire nights with Maour as they designed various tailfins and other contraptions, watching those thin hands scratch out marks on parchment as he mumbled to himself. Maour had explained that these marks were part of a complicated system of runes, which represented sounds, which represented words, which represented thoughts. Over time, Toothless had noticed certain runes commonly used and asked about them, so he knew what some of it meant. It wasn't the same as understanding the visual language, but it might be enough...</p><p>He closed his eyes, trying to recall one specific mark that Maour often scratched into his drawings with an arrow pointing at a troublesome part of an invention – a piece that broke off or refused to spin when it should have, some failure that would leave him groaning and writing a single word in frustration. The first rune had a sloping downward line, so he dragged his paw until he had one, ten times the size of Maour's little marks. There was a line sticking out of said slope, so he added another at roughly the right angle. And so on, one line at a time, triple-checked against his memories.</p><p><em>Why</em>. It was the one word he felt confident he could reproduce that was applicable to their situation, a challenge to the human lurking in this nest. An impossibility they could not hope to ignore if they saw it… If they could read at all, after spending so long in this nest. He didn't know.</p><p>It was a long shot, so long as to not count as a shot at all, but he did it anyway, going over the lines with his paw once, twice, three times to make them deep and as close to permanent as he could manage.</p><p>'What is it?' Grey asked curiously. 'Are you going to stick something out of those lines? Like a trap?'</p><p>'The lines are a trap, their shape means something to humans,' he explained. Though the idea of sticking things in the lines made him think of putting pebbles in to make them more easily seen. He went over to her rock pile and began sweeping suitable bits of rock back toward his word. 'Only humans know how to make them. I am asking "why" in a way that it cannot possibly ignore.'</p><p>'Why what?' Grey asked.</p><p>'Why this, why are we trapped, why is it here, why anything,' he huffed in response. 'I <em>could </em>ask those things specifically, but my memory isn't perfect, and their way of communicating with shapes is very complicated.'</p><p>'I think it's really interesting that you know anything,' Grey chirped enthusiastically. 'Can you teach me? How do you know? Does it work on all humans or just weird ones? Is there a version that only Night Furies can understand?'</p><p>'I don't know enough but I can try, can't say, all humans, no but that's a good idea,' Toothless rattled back, hoping his second reply would get lost amidst the others. He was taking the warning about not mentioning family seriously; he would have no part in setting the Skrill on the Isle, on Fora and Vern and everyone else who lived there. Even mention of a friendly human might remind Sadistic or Angry of the one that had been on his back when they attacked him…</p><p>Though their disinterest in that made a lot more sense now, given they were apparently used to seeing a dragon flying around with a pet human in tow.</p><p>'Wait.' Grey paused, sounding confused. 'Why would we need a secret language when we can already do this?'</p><p>'You mean talking in my head from anywhere you are is good enough that we don't need to scratch in the dirt to communicate?' Toothless laughed, looking over at where she was hidden. 'That's a fair point.'</p><p>'I'm not used to any of this,' Grey grumped. 'It would have been a good idea if this wasn't possible.'</p><p>'It would have,' he assured her. 'And–'</p><p>Tolerable, the Skrill watching them on this particular morning, leaped from his perch and flew overhead, startling Toothless and presumably Grey. Toothless turned to watch him go, but he wasn't going far, stopping to fly in circles around the massive, four-winged dragon hovering just above the ice wall.</p><p>'I forgot, the human always comes to see when one of us is brought in,' Grey whispered. 'It's been so long…'</p><p>The Skrill buzzed irritably, lightning flickering along his body as it was wont to do, but the four-winged dragon – who was <em>bigger </em>than the Skrill, if only by a small margin – growled and shook its head. The two dragons flew overhead, so slow the four-winged one was gliding. A small head poked over the side, staring down at Toothless in particular.</p><p>It didn't look like a human head, mottled grey and blue with a splash of red across where the nose would be. There was a horn and a stub that might have been a horn jutting out of the top, worn and damaged, and even if it was a mask, he couldn't see a hint of normal human skin. He knew something had to be behind the mask, but all he saw in the eyeholes was a dark shadow.</p><p>The neck quirked to the side in a motion he knew was unnaturally sharp – humans didn't <em>move </em>like that – and then the human withdrew.</p><p>The four-winged dragon flew away, and Tolerable returned to his perch. Star and Hefnd hadn't even looked up throughout the occurrence.</p><p>'Maybe it did not see your question?' Grey offered.</p><p>'No, it saw,' Toothless rumbled. They had to have seen, looking directly down at him and the shapes he had dug out. Seen, but not noticed, or understood, or cared. He didn't think this particular human was anything like Maour or the others. They wouldn't be an ally, they would be part of the problem.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>It was a strange contrast, dark ships made of metal and dark wood, pulling into a destroyed village… There to help, to distribute food and offer passage, even though they were clearly meant for war, not peace.</p><p>Maour watched from atop a crushed building, having climbed up to get a good view without endangering Von. She was huddled in their makeshift shelter, waiting for him and Ruffnut to return. Ruffnut was somewhere, he didn't know. Maybe she was trying to gather information, or maybe she was just messing around. He didn't really get her, especially on her own like this. The twins had a rhythm, one the Myrkurs worked with and complemented. Ruffnut on her own was… off.</p><p>Or maybe he was the one feeling off, feeling <em>wrong</em>. He was worried sick for Toothless, and he missed his family. He missed Heather too, and hated that she would have no idea where he had gone or whether he was even still alive.</p><p>He had plenty of reasons to be frustrated in general, and the juxtaposition of war and peace playing out in front of him definitely wasn't helping. Bulky, armored warriors were passing out jerky and water to the masses, moving with all the assurance of trained killers, and none of the brutality. On occasion someone was shoved out of the way or yelled at, but nothing ever came of it, despite the crossbows and swords the warriors all carried.</p><p>There was a disturbing number of crossbows, at that. Every single warrior he saw had one, and he could see dozens within the tightly-packed crowd. He didn't know where all of the refugees had spent the night; he wouldn't have thought so many were alive. The island had seemed far more lifeless the night before. The dragons that had attacked had done a number on the place, leaving it so destroyed that its inhabitants were willingly filing aboard a warship rather than staying and trying to pick up the pieces.</p><p>He wanted to help, too. But all else aside, there wasn't anything he <em>could </em>do here. He hadn't come bearing supplies, and Von couldn't take on even a single extra passenger. He wouldn't ask her even if she could; she was still adjusting to carrying two, let alone three, and the islands this far north were both sparse and mostly devoid of life. If they tried taking someone to the nearest inhabited island, there was a very real chance that Von would collapse long before getting there, and doom them all.</p><p>There was nothing he <em>could </em>do, at least not directly. But indirectly… The dragons had attacked for a reason. Raids could conceivably be random, targets of opportunity, but dragons did not come together to raze islands to the ground so thoroughly that nothing could eke out a living in the aftermath, not by chance.</p><p>"Oy!' A man's yell caught his attention, irreverent and loud above the subdued crowd passing through narrow streets and winding around piles of burned rubble. The voice was familiar.</p><p>A familiar form clambered up onto a partially-collapsed outhouse to cut past most of the thronging people and approach the ship dealing out supplies. "Can I get a bulk discount on supplies?"</p><p>Maour shook his head at the man's sheer audacity; those supplies were being given out for free, but to the inhabitants of this wrecked place, not shady ship captains who had almost certainly showed up afterward. He knew that voice and figure, both belonged to the dragon captain he had spoken to on their last information-gathering trip. Their ship had to be fast, to have gotten here so quickly; Von wasn't all that fast, and her path North was more zig-zag than straight most days out of necessity, but she was still at a distinct advantage compared to a ship going anything less than full sails the entire way.</p><p>He contemplated approaching the dragon trapper to find out whether he knew which of the ships in the fleet carried Drago, or if Drago was here at all… But their last meeting had ended with Eret spooked by something, and Maour didn't feel like speaking to the human side of this conflict quite yet. That would be a last resort, because it would mean he needed help attacking the dragon nest.</p><p>Talking and sneaking seemed like the smarter thing to try first, and given the flock of dragons – a Terror, to take Eret's terminology – had just been here, they had to be close to the ice nest. It would be smart to check that out first. Going there would reveal things none of the people here could possibly know.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Von didn't <em>miss </em>the ruined village and miserable island it had been located on, but she did miss having somewhere not-frozen to rest her paws. Their last stop had been a sea stack liberally coated in slick ice, and she was still feeling the cold all throughout her limbs.</p><p>Worse, the field of icebergs up ahead implied she wasn't going to be finding anywhere even that warm in the near future.</p><p>"That looks like the start of the ice fields," Maour commented, his voice dry and cracking. He didn't speak much while they were in the air, but Von thought he had been even more terse since they left the ravaged island and the war fleet aiding it. She didn't quite know why, since it seemed anyone helping others was a good thing, but it had bothered him.</p><p>"Well, that solves one mystery," Ruffnut said. "Only two days' flight from that place? They definitely attacked to get rid of their rowdy next-door neighbors."</p><p>Von recalled some groggy evenings when the other families would complain about being woken from sleep by the sounds of explosions and laughter drifting through the tunnels, the Myrkurs up to no good. The thought of humans annoying their draconic neighbors in the same fashion made her snort. Then stinging chunks of frost that pelted her face, dislodged from around her nostrils, reminded her why she didn't usually laugh at Ruffnut's jokes. Aside from them not being funny, that was.</p><p>Icebergs passed below her as she flew, chunks of white stark against the grey seas, even with the sun covered by the clouds and the fog restricting her view. They were massive, miniature mountains floating alongside each other, grinding together. She had never known that ice was <em>noisy</em>, but it was, there was no mistaking the constant rumble, the cracking and crashing, the way all of the icebergs were moving, constantly shifting with the tides or whatever else sufficed to move such things–</p><p>It was far from the worst scenery she had been subjected to on this horrible trip, and she could have called it beautiful if she wasn't so worried about what lay beyond it. What it protected, though saying that this arrangement of nature protected anything seemed backward, implying it had been made for such a purpose instead of existing regardless of who might shelter behind it.</p><p>"Remember the plan?" Maour asked at one point as they flew over the ice.</p><p>The plan, as far as she knew, was to fly in, talk to the first dragon they met that wasn't a Skrill, and wing it from there. It wasn't a good plan, or much of a plan at all. Planning required knowing something of what they were going up against, and here they knew next to nothing. Just that there might be Skrill, and there might be ice-spitting dragons, and there might be humans, and all of the above might be hostile or might not, and somewhere in the aforementioned mess was a Night Fury who was missing a tailfin and waiting for rescue.</p><p>For all their information-gathering prior to this, it didn't feel like they knew anything useful.</p><p>'Find someone to talk to and go from there,' she summarized.</p><p>"And if we see a Skrill, crush it with the might of justice," Ruffnut added.</p><p>'Justice?' Von asked, despite herself.</p><p>"Duh, justice," Ruffnut retorted. "What else do you call this?"</p><p>'A rescue?' She didn't see where justice came into it; that was for when it wasn't clear who was in the wrong, or how they should be punished. She wasn't here to punish the Skrill, she was here for her brother and Einn if they could get him out too. Dealing with the Skrill was a prerequisite, not the goal.</p><p>"Same thing, we're the good girls," Ruffnut said with a smirk. Von couldn't see her, of course, but she knew the smirk was there, especially as Ruffnut made no effort to correct herself. "When the bad people do it, it's kidnapping, but when we do it, it's rescuing."</p><p>'That makes no sense,' Von huffed.</p><p>"Of course it doesn't," Ruffnut retorted, "but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. It just means I'm not using the right words to explain it to you."</p><p>'What are the right words for me to explain that I don't feel like wrapping my head around this conversation?' Von asked.</p><p>"There's a dragon flying toward us right now?" Ruffnut suggested. "That'd do it."</p><p>'But that's not true,' Von huffed.</p><p>"Sure it is, you just aren't looking up," Ruffnut said seriously. "Long, lanky, purple, horns on the head, four limbs… I don't recognize the type."</p><p>Von looked, angling herself upward, and sure enough there was a dragon far above, diving to meet them. He or she flew cautiously, circling around at a distance, watching her warily.</p><p>'Hello, who are you?' Von called out, settling into a nonthreatening glide. Few dragons considered someone who was gliding to be a threat, because to glide was to do the absolute minimum required to stay in the air, nothing more.</p><p>'I am me,' the purple dragon shot back, his voice confirming him as male but little more. 'Where are you coming from?'</p><p>'From?' she asked. 'Not where am I going, but where have I left behind?' That certainly wasn't the first thing she would have asked. 'Just recently, a miserable bit of rock that was totally frozen over. Is there anywhere more comfortable than that where I can rest my paws?'</p><p>"Don't tell him about the Isle," Maour whispered. "If there are Skrill around…"</p><p>Von knew <em>that</em>; they had no idea what the situation was here, she wasn't going to reveal her home to a dragon who could very well tattle to a nest of Skrill.</p><p>'Are your pets dangerous?' the purple dragon asked after a moment of silence. He had fallen in to fly with her, or at least in the same direction, but kept a dozen wingspans between them.</p><p>'As dangerous as I am,' she rumbled, watching his reaction. From the way he stiffened and flinched away even though there was already quite a bit of distance between them, he certainly thought <em>she </em>was worth worrying about.</p><p>She was glad Maour and Ruffnut were keeping silent; it was looking more and more like the natives of this particular nest weren't going to immediately be on her side, and if that was the case they should be kept in the dark as much as possible. Not knowing that her passengers – who the dragon had immediately jumped to calling her pets, a strange thing she hoped Maour could explain later – could talk was definitely important.</p><p>'I can take you to a resting place,' the purple dragon offered. 'Fly with me.' He proceeded to continue flying in the exact same direction, at the same painfully slow pace.</p><p>Von played along for a little while, gliding and resting while she could. From the subtle interrogation she had just gone through, she was guessing that there wouldn't be anything pleasant waiting for them at this nest. But he <em>was </em>probably taking her to the nest, and in this fog she couldn't be sure of finding it on her own, so she wouldn't break off until she saw it in the distance. Then she could say goodbye to this possible enemy, hide somewhere amidst the icebergs, and wait until they were alone to investigate.</p><p>Or so she was planning; Maour and Ruffnut weren't objecting, so she assumed they were either following her lead, or coming up with their own plans that also involved following along for the time being. She wished they would tell her if that was the case.</p><p>No obviously nest-like shape appeared on the horizon; when the purple dragon dove, Von couldn't see anything except oddly-shaped icebergs. The flat spit of land that lay between two such icebergs, topped with snow and a few bare rocks, barely counted as a place to set down.</p><p>'I assumed you were taking me to your nest,' she admitted, circling around the tiny island. The icebergs rose up to either side, making her feel like she was flying in a ravine, not in the open air.</p><p>'You wanted somewhere to rest,' he replied nervously. 'Stay here, ease your wings. I will go ask our alpha if you can come to our nest.'</p><p>'Does it seem likely he'll say yes?' Von asked curiously.</p><p>'He always likes new guests, but powerful ones make some of us nervous, so it is best to get approval first,' the dragon explained. 'I will be back soon!'</p><p>Von watched him go, though her vision was soon blocked by the jagged, towering sides of the icebergs. 'So… What do you think?'</p><p>Ruffnut leaped out of the saddle, flourished a knife, and almost dropped it before getting a firm grip on the hilt. "Sounds like he's scared of awesomeness," she said confidently. "Also, it sounds like the Skrill wouldn't be welcome here, given how big and scary they are."</p><p>"It's possible they're not here," Maour agreed. He remained in the saddle, either out of wariness or a simple lack of interest in the unimpressive island available to him. "Maybe there is a Skrill nest somewhere nearby, and all of the less intimidating dragons gather here to avoid being preyed upon… Though that doesn't quite fit what we heard the Skrill saying about inviting dragons to stay with them, unless that was a trick."</p><p>'I would rather this be a whole nest of allies who will gladly help us in exchange for us solving some misunderstanding with the humans,' Von offered. That would be ideal; she'd feel a lot more confident flying to the rescue with a couple dozen dragons flying as backup.</p><p>"He did seem pretty chill about you having pet humans," Ruffnut remarked. "Maybe they're kidnapping fair maidens to be their pets, and the villages have got the wrong idea?"</p><p>"You don't raze an island to the ground if they're your supply of entertainment," Maour said. "There's a real war going on here, but they don't mind humans that much. They're afraid of stronger dragons, but still willing to offer hospitality if their alpha approves–"</p><p>There was a jagged flash of light in the clouds above, silent and threatening. Von crouched, and Ruffnut leaped back into the saddle. "Fly!" she shouted, and Von leaped up, beating her wings hard against the frigid air. It had been a trap, a lie, or the Skrill had just found them by chance; however it had happened, there was definitely a Skrill around.</p><p>More than one, she saw as she rose above the tops of the icebergs. Two Skrill were quickly approaching from the West, and a third was diving from above, all three crackling with unspent energy.</p><p>Von needed no advice from Maour or Ruffnut on what to do next; she turned tail and fled as fast as she could. One Skrill was a challenge, two was outright unfair, but three was suicide. She dove back down below the tops of the icebergs, flying between two for a short distance to try and lose them.</p><p>Lightning struck to either side, showering ice shards in front of her. She backflapped once to slow herself, the strain making itself felt in every part of her wing shoulders, then pushed forward again almost immediately, only barely passing over the biggest pieces of ice. Staccato cracks resounded above the usual cracking of the ice field, further explosions peppering the icy ravine she was fleeing down. The end of the ravine was rapidly approaching, the path she was taking ending to the left where a new iceberg merged with the existing one, and became far narrower to the right. She ducked to the right at the last moment, nearly throwing Ruffnut off in her haste, and flew lower, closer to the water. The jagged surface of the ice flashed by, reflecting each new explosion's light, mostly coming from behind; the blasts were still striking where she had been, not where she was now.</p><p>It had only been moments, maybe a dozen heartbeats, since she saw the Skrill, and she was already flying for her life. 'What do I do?' she all but screeched. Her current path ended in the distance, this time with no convenient offshoots for her to go down, and the blasting had stopped, meaning the Skrill didn't think she was back where she had started anymore.</p><p>"Keep moving, stay low," Maour shouted. "But don't stay here!"</p><p>Staying in this particular gorge definitely wasn't an option; Von threw herself up just as the icebergs grew too close together to fly between, barely avoiding a horrible crash. A gut-wrenching shriek came from behind almost immediately, and she saw lights flashing off to her left, so she dove to the right–</p><p>The third Skrill dropped down like a lightning bolt, sparking in all directions and almost driving her from the sky, missing her by less than two wing-lengths. The Skrill hit the ice hard, unable to pull out in time, but Von doubted the impact had been enough to ground it. She dove, spiraled to the side just in case someone was trying to fire on her, and scanned the drifting ice field for another set of narrow openings to fly in. The Skrill were bigger and less maneuverable than she was, if not by much, and going through places they couldn't follow seemed like the least terrible of her options. Compared to flying in the open or trying to take the fight to them, it was downright safe.</p><p>Two irregular mountains of ice were grinding together below her, cliffsides smashing and inexorably breaking each other down. There was a barely-visible opening beneath them, completely hidden from above and only partially visible when approached from the right angle. She dove without hesitation, dropped down into the opening, and immediately sought somewhere to land. There were ledges everywhere, places where ice chunks had been ripped out irregularly, but none were secluded enough.</p><p>They would have to do; she had no idea where this particular tunnel in the ice led, but she would bet it was a dead end. She dropped to perch on a slanted bit of ice near the bottom of the trench, just above the water's surface, and huddled down, motionless. Her heart was pounding triple-time, and her every instinct roared that she should be moving–</p><p>Two Skrill blasted down into the crevasse with wild abandon, roaring as they flew onward, right over her without noticing her presence. It was dark down near the water, and they were flashing their own bright lights, blinding themselves. Their localized lighting storms disappeared between the icebergs.</p><p>She wasn't going to forget the third Skrill again; if they were smart, they would be waiting above, ready to pounce once she came back up anywhere near where she had gone down. Going back up would waste the momentary respite she had won.</p><p>Instead, she called up her fire, inhaling deeply, and began flaming the ice, melting it as fast and as quietly as she could. The ice was rough underpaw, but in the end just frozen water, and said water streamed away from where she flamed, leaving behind a depression too shallow to be called a hole, but big enough that she could squeeze herself against it and be even less obvious from above.</p><p>"If we're going to hide, let's do it right," Ruffnut hissed, reaching over to scrape up some slush. She slathered it on Von's head, which would have frustrated Von if she didn't understand what Ruffnut was trying to do. Instead of complaining, she bore it and tried to huddle against the ice in a way that didn't feel like she was freezing half her body.</p><p>"No, don't do that, she'll freeze to death," Maour objected. "Just… sit tight. Be ready to fly if they double back."</p><p>'When I do fly, where should I go?' she asked anxiously. 'I cannot take three of them, I could not even take two. They found me so quickly…'</p><p>"I'm sure that dragon sent for them, maybe he had a friend who went flying for them the moment we were spotted," Maour said darkly. "It took them no time at all to get to us. That means their nest is close, which means we're on the right track."</p><p>'That does not tell me where to go, their entire nest must be hostile for that random dragon to give us away immediately,' she fretted. A soft rain of ice shards from above made her flinch, even though it was just the constant grinding of the icebergs at work. She could feel the rumbling in her paws, transmitted through the ice all around her.</p><p>"Can't count on anyone out here to help," Maour agreed. "Maybe, if we managed to shake them, you could go find the nest, but that might just get us right back into trouble."</p><p>"We're not going to get Toothless out of anywhere as we are, remember?" Ruffnut reminded them. "Maour's gotta build a new tailfin, unless I missed him putting one together in some random cave with a box of scraps."</p><p>"Yeah… Ugh." Maour took a hand off his Scythe long enough to rub at his eyes. "This was a mistake, I'd hoped we'd be able to make allies with the dragons out here. That doesn't seem like it's going to happen."</p><p>"Ya think?" Ruffnut asked.</p><p>Something exploded in the distance, loud enough to be heard above the ambient noise. Another explosion sounded, more distant than the first, and was followed by a faint howl of pure rage.</p><p>"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence," Maour said dryly. "Von, how long can you stand hiding here?"</p><p>'Compared to going out there, this is fine,' she said. 'I am not that cold.' That was a blatant lie, but she <em>really </em>didn't want to leave until she was sure they were gone.</p><p>"Well, sounds like we'll be here a while yet," Ruffnut sighed. She twisted in the saddle, and Von heard a few scratching sounds. "Hey Maour, do the Skrill have horns? I can't remember."</p><p>"You know, I don't remember either," Maour admitted. "Whenever I see them, I'm more worried about the lightning shooting everywhere. Half the time I can't even <em>see </em>them except as silhouettes or blinding shapes."</p><p>'They have weird fin-like spikes, a dozen of them, like Nadders,' Von recalled, thinking back to the few times she had faced a Skrill long enough to get a good look. She didn't have the problem Maour had described, maybe because her eyes were different.</p><p>"Fin-spikes… Right." Ruffnut scratched at the ice for a little while. Von listened for more roaring, but heard nothing. "There. Maour, thoughts?"</p><p>"It's ugly, which I think means you've done a good job," Maour deadpanned. "Why the drawing?"</p><p>"So we can figure out how to better kill them," Ruffnut explained. "Let's play 'throw the imaginary spear at the dragon' and see what we come up with.</p><p>Von shifted, turning around so she could look at Ruffnut's drawing. It was crude, little more than a stick figure, but she supposed it was fairly good for something scratched out in a tense situation with no reference to look at.</p><p>They began throwing ideas around, and no Skrill came crashing down on them, but Von couldn't shake the feeling that they were still in danger. They were deep in enemy territory, and they couldn't stay holed up beneath the ice forever.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>Author's Note: </strong>
  </em>
  <strong>I'm not quite sure what my guest reviewer from last chapter considers a 'super-manipulator', but I feel it's safe to say that no, whatever your definition, Grey is not one. It's pretty self-evident that things are not to her liking, even within the confines of their little prison. If she was manipulative, she would probably have done something about that at some point before Toothless came along. It's not like she has anything </strong>
  <em>
    <strong>else </strong>
  </em>
  <strong>to do.</strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>The cold forced Von to abandon her hiding place in the ice far sooner than she would have preferred. If it were up to her, she would have waited until nightfall. The Skrill were the epitome of bright and flashy, they couldn't possibly have good night vision, whereas she was made for the night.</p><p>But she was shivering, Maour and Ruffnut were shivering, and waiting any longer might result in frostbite. So she found herself taking to the air, resisting the urge to waste a shot on warming herself up, and cautiously flying out of the covered crevice she'd taken shelter in, Maour and Ruffnut crouched on her back, weapons at the ready.</p><p>They were not immediately ambushed or struck down as she emerged into the foggy afternoon, but that was the best she could say for the situation she found herself in. She dropped down to the top of the iceberg, feeling dangerously exposed.</p><p>Lightning flashed above, silent and distant. Dragons of various types, some recognizable and some completely foreign to her, flew low over the many icebergs, diving into the gaps between, landing to investigate strange things, and generally passing over everything with a purpose. There weren't many dragons within view, maybe half a dozen, but the fog meant she had no idea whether that was all there were, or whether the entire ice field was being searched in the same manner.</p><p>"Skrill have friends," Ruffnut muttered. "Who'd have thought?"</p><p>"They'll be waiting up high," Maour added, much more helpfully. "Where the air is thin and they can see far in all directions. Stay low, stay away from the other dragons, and head for the edge of the ice field."</p><p>All of that was well and good, but Von hesitated. Having a plan and carrying it out were two very different things, and she couldn't even <em>see </em>the edge of the ice fields from where she stood. She remembered which direction they had come from, thankfully, but there were two Gronckles buzzing around that way, and likely more dragons past them, out of sight.</p><p>Black scales against a backdrop of white; she had no chance. It was a question of <em>when </em>they'd be spotted, not if, and once that happened the chase would be back on.</p><p>She set out on paw, reasoning that the uneven, semi-mountainous nature of the icebergs would at least make her harder to see except from directly above. The ice and snow were alternatively slick and coarse against her paws, and running with passengers was an entirely different experience to flying with them. To her immense dismay, she found herself tiring before even reaching the edge of the first iceberg.</p><p>Said edge was simple enough; one hard leap with a flap at the apex of her path was enough to carry her over to the jagged edge of the next one. She panted hoarsely, her breath coming out in jets of mist and merging with the foggy air all around her. It was starting to snow, high above, and little specks that fell like rain stung her face. The weather was reliably horrible on this trip, so she wasn't surprised, but it didn't make her feel good, either.</p><p>A Monstrous Nightmare, easily identified by the way it was engulfed in flames, flew directly overhead, passing by without so much as looking down. Von was content to consider that a lucky break, but she changed course anyway, without prompting from Maour. Even the chance of being spotted and reported to the Skrill meant she couldn't keep to an easily predictable course.</p><p>The dragons searching, at first seemingly unavoidable, were becoming more and more spread out as time passed. They were moving in ones and twos, not coordinating at all, and she was pretty sure she'd seen some retrace the path of others, wasting time on double-checking what only needed to be checked once. The very thoroughness that would have made hiding in one place impossible aided her in a way; she could move through otherwise open areas while all of the searchers within eyeshot were delving down into the cracks and crevices.</p><p>But for all that she hadn't been noticed yet, it was not like she was making <em>progress</em>. So long as she remained on paw, she was moving at a fragment of her top speed, a worthless fragment that wouldn't get her anywhere before nightfall… Before daybreak, at this pace, maybe even longer. On the other paw, taking to the air in any fashion would make her far easier to spot, and going up above the clouds would draw Skrill to her…</p><p>And all of this difficulty was in getting <em>away </em>from the icy nest she was now sure held Toothless. If being captured didn't come with the <em>minor </em>consequence of having her wings broken, she would be considering allowing herself to be taken. As it was, even if she did that, Maour hadn't made a replacement tailfin yet, so it wasn't like getting to Toothless would <em>do </em>anything.</p><p>Her frustration didn't warm her against the cold or steel her heart against the constant stress of listening for the first sign of discovery, but it did help the time pass. She couldn't be mad at Maour, especially as she hadn't objected, but coming here hadn't been the smartest thing. They <em>knew </em>the Skrill were dangerous, they knew they would need a new tailfin for Toothless to get him out, and they had left that destroyed village without even looking for supplies for Maour to work with.</p><p>She hopped over a gap between icebergs, this one little more than a crack with a metallic grey far below, and wished they'd not come. The icebergs cracked together below–</p><p>"Wait, go back," Maour said. "That wasn't water down there."</p><p>Von stopped, checked their immediate surroundings – the only dragon close by had gone down into a gap in the ice a while ago and not come back up, so they were relatively safe for the moment – and then doubled back. She didn't feel comfortable standing over the gap between icebergs, so she stood on one side and leaned forward to look.</p><p>She fully expected to see grey-tinted water, or maybe a wrecked warship. Something old, empty and forgotten.</p><p>A very much active metal ship with humans swarming the top, moving white things around with a sense of purpose, on the other paw… Not exactly something she had anticipated.</p><p>"Hey, they're hiding their ship," Ruffnut whispered. "With white flags! Why didn't we think to bring something like that? We could just pretend to be a chunk of ice."</p><p>Sure enough, the white things the humans were spreading out and draping over the various surfaces of their ship looked a lot like ice, at first glance. When they finished, their entire ship would look like a big piece of ice that had fallen from the jagged cliffs above and gotten lodged just above the waterline. It was clever…</p><p>She wanted one of those white sheets. Or to hide in the depths of their ship, but they almost certainly weren't friendly enough for that to be an option, so she'd settle for stealing her own camouflage. 'How do we get one of those?' she asked.</p><p>"We'd still run into the problem of not being able to stay still," Maour warned her.</p><p>"I'd rather be a white blob moving along the ice than a black one," Ruffnut countered. "Plus, it'd be like a blanket, and it's freezing out here. Come on, let's go lift one of those before they finish, they'll notice if we do it after."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Ruffnut rubbed her hands together in anticipation… and because they were cold. Finally, a use for her skills! Von and Maour needed to infiltrate and steal something, and that meant they needed her.</p><p>The target was a weird one, even by her standards. It was fat, covered in metal, and lacked many of the obvious features of a ship, such as sails, or even a mast. It was sitting at the bottom of what was for all intents and purposes a canyon of ice, meaning no approach from the sides. The strip of sky the ship's occupants could see was almost certainly being watched, given they were in hostile territory and already on alert.</p><p>If that were all, she'd suggest waiting until it got dark and sneaking down. But they had to move <em>now</em>, for multiple reasons. They were cold and standing still was a danger, for one thing, and sooner or later a dragon was going to fly close enough to notice them. That, plus the ship steadily turning itself white as camouflage… They had to move now, and they had to get down without being spotted and filled with arrows.</p><p>It was a challenge. It was perfect for her. Not so perfect for the other two. "Okay, looks like I'm going down," she said confidently.</p><p>"Just you?" Maour asked.</p><p>"There's no way we're getting Von anywhere down that canyon without her being spotted," Ruffnut quickly explained. "And I can be faster on my own." The iceberg walls – cliffs, really – were jagged and offered plenty of handholds, plus a few twisted routes that looked to be mostly hidden from the eyes of those on the ship. She could probably get down without any problems. Getting Maour down, though, would be tricky, so she'd rather not. He didn't spend his nights trying to keep up with Boom, he wasn't trained for this.</p><p>"We'll circle around and come back for you," Maour agreed. "Von, are any of them coming this way?"</p><p>"I can see a Gronckle who might get here before nightfall, but other than that, no," Von confirmed. Ruffnut was just glad Von could see anything in this fog; she didn't think the Fury realized it, but she and Maour hadn't seen <em>any </em>of these dragons Von mentioned, save for the Monstrous Nightmare that had been stupid enough to light itself on fire. Thankfully, said dragons all seemed to be in the same boat in terms of visibility, or lack thereof; that was probably a large part of why none had caught them yet.</p><p>Ruffnut hopped off Von's back, arched her own back to get the cramps out, and palmed the knife she'd gotten from Maour. So far, she'd used it for everything <em>but </em>stabbing enemies, and this didn't seem like it would break the streak. "I'll be right here when you get back, but if I'm not circle around again," she suggested. "No telling whether I'll be as fast coming up as I am going down."</p><p>'Be careful,' Von hissed.</p><p>"Hey, I can always pretend I'm a valkyrie with a head injury if they catch me," she suggested. "I'll say it made me stupid, stumble a bit… How <em>else </em>would I have gotten out here? They'll love me." She wasn't entirely certain the men below <em>were </em>Vikings, they seemed pretty foreign to her, but whatever. They wouldn't catch her.</p><p>'Hope you do not have to use that story,' Von told her seriously. 'Because it stinks.' Then she was off, loping across the icy hills and crags, crouching low to the ground. Her pure black form was almost immediately washed out to a dark grey by the fog.</p><p>"That blanket is going to be <em>awesome</em>," she muttered to herself as she walked along the ridge toward the likely path down she had spotted. If black turned to grey that quickly, something white would be invisible even while it was moving. As the smarter than average warriors below had already figured out… Though they'd somehow gotten their ship between two icebergs without an obvious way out, so they couldn't be <em>that </em>smart.</p><p>The lip she had chosen, a vertical ridge of ice jutted out toward the ship down at the bottom of the canyon, and continued all the way to the top, was perfect. Especially since it already had perfect handholds carved into it, though sized for someone wider and taller than her.</p><p>This wasn't going to be an improvised descent, she'd be following someone else's path. "How long have you idiots been stuck here?" she wondered aloud as she began the surprisingly easy climb down. The ice almost immediately numbed her hands, but a brief pause every half-dozen steps to stick her hand in her armpit counteracted that, at least for the time being.</p><p>Maybe she would steal some hot water while she was down on their ship. Or an entire chicken roast, if they had one. It would be hilarious to return to Von and Maour bearing cover <em>and </em>food that wasn't flash-fried fresh fish…</p><p>"Flash-fried fresh fish," she muttered as she descended. That was good, it was the sort of thing Tuffnut would laugh at and Boom would make into an annoying rhyme… But she was alone, and by the time she saw them again, it would be old and stale and probably forgotten. She had a brilliant work of theft-based art to complete. Tuffnut and the others weren't going to distract her from it, not from halfway across the world!</p><p>She dropped the last few feet to an icy ledge roughly at sea level. The only thing between her and the ship was a thin, mostly opaque ridge of ice, which she promptly leaned around.</p><p>Seen from the side, it was even weirder than it had first appeared. Someone far too much like Maour had designed this ship, and it showed. Metal plates were bolted together to make up the sides, the entire thing was far too wide and flat, and the parts of the deck not yet covered by white tarps or busy men were made of a strange, coarse-looking wood, metal openings and fiddly devices where ballistae and other war machines should be.</p><p>She wasn't here to steal any of that, so she didn't bother wondering how they defended themselves. Her target, the closest white tarp, was conveniently draped just a half-dozen steps and a short jump away from where she stood. So long as she could land on it, bundle it up, and then somehow jump back to the ice again without being noticed, she could take it.</p><p>Maour or Von might have waited, but Ruffnut was not a patient woman. She strode out onto the little ice ridge with all the poise and grace in the world. She was just another sailor, coming back from a scouting trip or something, a lot of these guys were less than bulky so she would fit right in–</p><p>"Who goes there!" someone yelled. "You're not one of ours!"</p><p>It was possible she had let her impatience get the better of her, given she'd come down with the intention of pulling off a perfect heist, but she didn't let that deter her. "You're drunk again," she retorted. "Of course I am!"</p><p>The one who had yelled, a skinny fellow in an odd hat that offered absolutely no protection like any proper helmet would, squinted at her. "That's… No, that's not right," he retorted, sounding less than sure of himself. "I've only had two mugs today."</p><p>"And it's barely noon," Ruffnut shot back, keenly aware of their growing audience. Men were slowing in their formerly hasty preparations, stopping to watch, and to stare at her in what she hoped was confusion, not outright suspicion.</p><p>She leaped aboard the ship, stomping her boots on one of the tarps as a hasty plan formed in her mind. "Seriously, I know I spend a lot of time avoiding the idiots on this ship, but you should at least <em>recognize </em>me!"</p><p>"Don't get the covers wet," the oddly-hatted man objected. "They get wet, they freeze, they crack."</p><p>"And you're going to make me thaw it out, too, aren't you," she groaned. "Well, fine." She stepped off the tarp she'd sullied – with all of a few crumbling chunks of snow, but it was excuse enough for her – and bundled it up, hastily rolling it into a tight tube about as tall as she was. "Go tell Yorick I'm going to be late for our daily game."</p><p>A few of the onlookers glanced at each other; she supposed they didn't have anyone named Yorick on this ship. So much the better for her; it was amazing that they were falling for this in the first place, and someone objecting that he didn't know her after she'd directly mentioned him might break the spell.</p><p>They all stood there for a moment, aside from those who were totally ignoring her and going about their business in the background. They stood there because they weren't quite sure whether she was actually one of them. She stood there because she couldn't think of a reliable excuse to go climbing an ice cliff with the tarp she had just said she was going to clean off.</p><p>"Oy!" A booming voice startled most of the people watching her. The massive man who came up out of the ship's depths clapped his meaty hands together a few times, catching the attention of the rest. "Get <em>movin</em>', outsmartin' the dragons doesn't work if you're too stupid to follow through!"</p><p>"Boss, you recognize this one?" the hat man asked, pointing to Ruffnut. "I don't."</p><p>"I don't even know <em>your </em>name, and you complain about everything," the large man retorted. "She's <em>here</em>, idiot. There's only one way to be here, and that's to have come on the ship. Do your job and let her do hers!" He barely even looked at her before stomping down the length of the ship.</p><p>Ruffnut noticed with some amusement that the 'boss' was leaving charcoal footprints on the tarps he stepped on, and nobody was picking them up. It looked like the hat man really was a whiner.</p><p>Still, he had given her a good excuse to acquire her target without raising suspicions, so she didn't call him out on it. Even if playing out that excuse had her walking toward the hatch, not headed back to where she was going to meet Von and Maour…</p><p>It probably wouldn't be a problem. She had time for a detour, and they'd appreciate her all the more if she brought back a <em>warm </em>tarp.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Von had spent the day freezing her paws off, creeping around feeling incredibly exposed, and somehow avoiding all notice, though it helped that apparently some of the searching dragons were getting bored and giving up. Not enough for her to fly away, but enough that she was noticing a difference, even if the Skrill were still presumably making the clear skies above a no-fly zone.</p><p>She wasn't miserable, but she certainly wasn't happy. Neither was Maour. Which made it very annoying that when they finally found Ruffnut waiting for them, she bore a big smile and smelled of foreign food, strange but <em>definitely </em>mouth-watering.</p><p>"I gotta tell you, that was exactly what I needed," she proclaimed. "Turns out, they have these weird spices they put on everything. Their food is great." She unrolled the big white tarp she had tucked under her arm, and Von dove beneath it. "Do we really still need this, though? I don't see any dragons around."</p><p>"Some gave up, but it'll let us travel a little quicker without having to worry about being spotted so easily," Maour said gruffly. "You didn't attract attention?"</p><p>"I got plenty of attention," Ruffnut said casually, sliding back onto Von's back with ease despite the tarp pressing down on her. Her voice was slightly muffled for a moment. "Ugh, tarp does not taste nearly as good. Anyway, yeah. Turns out, some of 'em were feeling guilty about not even noticing their attractive fellow crew member the whole time she's been on the ship with them, so yeah. Did you know, these guys have been out here for a month? And that getting stuck was intentional? They have a smaller ship they send back with messages for Drago, they're an observation post."</p><p>Von shimmied her wings and tried to pin bits of the tarp between her shoulders and neck, so it wouldn't fall off once she started moving. It was an awkward affair, which didn't help her irritation. She was torn between wanting Ruffnut to stop sounding so smug and wanting to hear what she had learned by apparently just walking up and bluffing her way into being one of them.</p><p>"Did they mention what they're telling him?" Maour asked. The tarp shifted on top of him, and Von assumed he was trying to get it to lay more evenly, or something. She thought she had it about as well as it would go without outside help, now.</p><p>"Dragon flight frequency in this part of the ice field, scouting out potential paths through, of which there are absolutely none," Ruffnut reported. "Turns out this place sucks for ships. And everything else, too. They're a little worried about getting noticed and swarmed, but the tarps are working pretty well to keep dragons from spotting them. Also, Drago is only two days away from the edge of the ice field if you go East once you get out of it, so if we want to go check out the enemy of our enemy…"</p><p>"We'll head toward him, yeah," Maour confirmed. "Von, I'm holding on to it as best I can. Try walking?"</p><p>Von shuffled forward, feeling the tug of heavy cloth on her back. It slid back a little, covering the top of her head and draping down over the rest of her, so she could see but not be seen from above. 'Feels good,' she said, moving faster. She didn't know if this tarp was going to actually help her, but it made her feel safer.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Several long hours of creeping across the ice field later, night had fallen, and with it the search had trailed off entirely. They had then discovered that flying with a big air-catching thing draped over Von was entirely impossible. Maour put it away, and moments later they were out over the open water.</p><p>Ruffnut was feeling smug. There wasn't any more pleasant word for it, and she didn't care enough to think of one. Smug fit her just fine. Not just because her tarp-snatching mission had gotten them the direction Von was even now flying in. On their way out of the ice field no less than two dragons had flown directly overhead, no doubt fooled by the tarp. It wasn't flashy, it wasn't obvious, and they couldn't be <em>sure </em>that the tarp had saved them… But she liked to think so.</p><p>Better yet, she could tell Maour was keenly aware of her smugness, despite her not saying anything about it. Maybe <em>because </em>she hadn't spoken of it, at that. Bragging sometimes worked better when the one to be bragged to was anticipating it, and thus thinking about it without her doing anything.</p><p>"You said it took their latest messenger ship two days to reach Drago from the edge of the ice field, right?" Maour asked her.</p><p>"Yeah, just about. So we should be there by midnight, right?" Von wasn't as fast as an unburdened Night Fury, or a Skrill carrying a Night Fury, but she was still ridiculously fast compared to any ship.</p><p>"Yes, if they move at comparable speeds to the ships back home," Maour said. "Do you know if they had a mast on the little ship they used to send messages? Because the ship we saw didn't have one."</p><p>"I don't know anything about the little ship, the guy just said they send messages back," she recalled. She hadn't paid him <em>that </em>much attention. "For all I know, they've been stuffing their reports in empty bottles and tossing them into the ocean. I'm assuming they have a smaller ship that can go back and forth."</p><p>"Maybe," Maour agreed. "The mast, though?"</p><p>"Why do you care so much about the mast?" she asked. "I think they just took it down or something. You can't disguise your ship as a chunk of ice if there's a big wooden pole sticking out of it."</p><p>"If they didn't have a mast, they had to have some other way of sailing," he said irritably. "If they had another way of sailing, it might be faster or slower than what we're used to, which means our estimate for how long it will take to get there could be totally wrong."</p><p>'Ruffnut, do not think I am copying you,' Von chimed in for no apparent reason.</p><p>"Okay, I won't," Ruffnut agreed. "Even though you could do a lot worse than copying <em>me</em>."</p><p>'That said, either Drago's fleet has moved, or Maour is right and they have some way of sailing that is faster,' Von continued. 'I think I can see lights ahead, on the horizon.'</p><p>Ruffnut squinted, but she didn't see a thing. "Curse your dragon eyes," she complained. "And here I thought the bonus from the link made me superior."</p><p>"The link didn't physically remake your eyes, there were bound to be limits," Maour said absently, leaning forward to get a better look. Ruffnut resisted the urge to bop him on the back of the head and ask him if he could see any better from that far forward. Intentionally annoying him wouldn't end well when she was stuck all but pressed against his back, and potentially flying into another battle to boot.</p><p>"Okay, this time can we actually make some allies?" she asked. "Because we're running out of possible friends. Unless there's a sea dragon somewhere who would be willing to take us under the ice in their giant mouth…"</p><p>'I am going to regret asking this,' Von sighed, 'but <em>where </em>did you get that idea?'</p><p>"The depths of my intelligence astound my lessers," Ruffnut declared. "Also," she added as an afterthought, "Fishlegs keeps giving me books he thinks I'll like. There was this one book of foreign stories that were all crazy like that." She remembered that book; she'd had to stop Blast from chewing on it. Then she'd had to stop Tuffnut from chewing on it too, and then Fishlegs had seen them trying to gnaw the corners and asked for her to give it back.</p><p>'You can read?' Von snorted.</p><p>"Hey, can <em>you</em>?" Ruffnut retorted.</p><p>'I don't have the hands to open books or turn the pages,' Von complained. 'What's your excuse?'</p><p>"None, I can read," Ruffnut said smugly.</p><p>"That's definitely a fleet of warships," Maour said, blatantly changing the subject from his sister's losing argument. Sixty… Maybe seventy ships, judging by those green lights."</p><p>Green lights, indeed. Ruffnut squinted, but they remained stubbornly green, not pale yellow-white like all the rest. She considered asking why some of the lights were green, but then realized she might get a long, boring answer and thought better of it.</p><p>'Wouldn't that make it very easy to keep track of the ships when attacking them, if there was one green light per ship and no more?' Von asked. 'If it were up to me I would have none at all, or if I had to have them, put some extras in different places on the same ships so that my fleet looked bigger.'</p><p>"He might very well be doing that," Maour conceded.</p><p>As they flew closer, the lights on the horizon, green and yellow alike, grew from dots to… slightly larger dots. But the ships they were attached to became visible, hulking blots of darkness and reflected light on the slightly more reflective ocean. The green lights turned out to be scattered across them without any discernible pattern, as Von had suggested, but Maour's assessment had, if anything, been too low.</p><p>"Somebody's gonna conquer the world with all of that," Ruffnut said. "Or die trying." Whoever this Drago guy was, he had <em>way </em>too much patience and free time, to assemble a fleet this size. At that, he <em>was </em>apparently chasing a horde of dragons in circles around their home territory, so she already knew that about him.</p><p>"It's not just ships, either," Maour observed a short while later. "Something just took off from one of those decks. Either they're being raided, or…"</p><p>"Or this guy's got dragon riders too," Ruffnut concluded. "Hey, cool. Good for him." Dragons were reasonable – assuming they weren't taking orders from Skrill – and talking wasn't all it was cracked up to be; she wasn't that surprised to find out somebody had managed to bribe a few Nadders or something. She <em>was</em>, on the other hand, surprised there hadn't been any rumors about it. Just the ones about the single, terrifying dragon rider that might or might not exist.</p><p>"Can't be, there's no way to keep that quiet," Maour objected. "Von, do they see us?"</p><p>'The ones that flew up just now?' There was a short wait while Von presumably squinted and stared really hard. Ruffnut was really missing her link with Boom; at least with that she could have seen for herself, even if she was just seeing empty night sky.</p><p>'No, they're patrolling the air above the armada,' she said after a few moments. 'They don't see us, it's just… guard duty. There are four of them, I don't recognize any, and I think there's only one rider.'</p><p>"Time to decide on our approach," Maour said. "Last time we tried walking in and saying hello, it didn't work out."</p><p>"Last time for you," Ruffnut felt obliged to point out. "Last time <em>I </em>tried it things couldn't have gone better."</p><p>'I do not know if I could sneak onto this fleet like I did the last few islands,' Von added. 'There are guards everywhere on those ships, and more importantly they are close to danger, and they know it. They will be keeping close watch.'</p><p>"And Von did see a rider, so maybe we can act all chummy with them first," Ruffnut added. "Just let them talk, find out what the deal is, and then pretend we're doing the same with Von, whatever it is."</p><p>"Be ready to fight if they don't realize what's happening right away," Maour warned. "If there was a way to warn them ahead of time that we're not here to attack, I'd be a lot more comfortable with it, but as is we're going to have to just fly up, avoid being taken out of the sky, and try to talk some sense into–"</p><p>"<em>Or</em>," Ruffnut drawled, cutting him off before he could get too far, "we could take my far-sighted brilliance and show a white flag. That ought to get us talking, at the very least."</p><p>Maour twisted in the saddle to stare at her, and by extension at the saddlebag behind her. "Or that," he conceded.</p><p>"Yes," she said with a superbly smug smile. "That."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Von clutched the tarp in both back paws, dragging it under herself as she flew. It flapped and slapped against her, making a lot of noise and totally ruining her already lumpy profile.</p><p>But for all that it was ugly and slowing her down so much she wanted nothing more than to drop it, the dragons flying out to meet her without opening fire or sounding alarms proved it was good for something. Again.</p><p>Two of the dragons coming toward her were obviously some sort of distant relative of the Gronckle, massive and so lumpy that even their relatively larger wings weren't enough to help her understand how they remained in the air. The other two were long and bulky, but far more reasonably shaped. All four wore full body plate mail the likes of which Maour had dismissed as not worth it for Night Furies <em>years</em> ago, and one of latter type of dragon also carried a human, who was sitting with both legs out to one side, for some reason.</p><p>'We come to speak, not to fight,' she called out as they drew close.</p><p>None of the dragons flying toward her responded.</p><p>"We're here to talk!" Maour yelled, echoing the sentiment in words the foreign rider would be more likely to understand.</p><p>"I noticed!" the rider yelled back, his voice gruff. "The bounty?"</p><p>"Which one?" Maour retorted. "Von, don't let your guard down," he muttered. "They might think I'm here to sell you or something, and once they know I'm not they might decide to try and take you anyway."</p><p>'That really did not need to be said,' Von snorted. Maybe it made him feel better, warning her of such an obvious danger, but it just made her more anxious. Of course she was wary of the dragons now firmly within firing distance potentially deciding she was worth chasing, it had already happened once today!</p><p>"The bounty on knowledge of dragons," the rider yelled back. "Or the one on skilled warriors. Or the one on those with new war machines. You qualify for half of them!"</p><p>Von closed in with the dragons, turning to fly around them as they slowed to a near-stop in the air. The human rider didn't seem to do anything, but the dragons turned as a group, flying alongside her. She tried to look into the eyes of the one closest to her, but the armor obscured her view.</p><p>'Do you speak, or are you entirely under his control?' she asked tentatively. Maour and the rider were exchanging further clarification, but she listened for the dragon's reply. If there was none, that would be a huge warning sign–</p><p>'Some of us just don't like talking,' the dragon grunted. 'Why are you here?'</p><p>'I am looking for allies to help raid the ice nest,' she said truthfully. That much seemed safe to reveal. 'Why are <em>you </em>here?'</p><p>'I wish to see the ice nest overthrown,' the dragon growled. His rider glanced down worriedly, but he did nothing more. 'Your humans?'</p><p>'They want the same thing,' she assured him. 'We work together very well.'</p><p>'They will speak with Drago, and that will be enough to see them joining our cause,' the armored dragon rumbled confidently. 'It is good you have come here, where you can contribute.'</p><p>'I'm glad to hear it,' Von purred. 'Tell me, do you know why the dragons of the ice nest don't have the same attitude?' She didn't think this dragon would mind that they had gone there first; they were here <em>now</em>, after all.</p><p>'A difference of philosophies, hubris…' The armored dragon shrugged his wings, buffeting his human, who yelped. 'Their loss.'</p><p>"Von, we're heading down," Maour said right in her ear. "Leftmost ship, the wooden one with two masts and two green lights."</p><p>Von nodded and turned a steady glide into a gentle descent. She was a little disappointed when the other dragons didn't follow, especially the one she had been talking to, but they <em>did</em> have a responsibility to keep watch, it made sense they couldn't break from their patrol. "What did I miss?"</p><p>"Drago is the smartest warlord I've ever heard of," Maour said. "He recruits intelligent people and innovators, offers bounties for new knowledge. All war-oriented, but that's still very smart."</p><p>"You're just flattered because the stooge up there says you could make a small fortune," Ruffnut objected. "You're sharing if you do, right?"</p><p>"Who knows what Drago will be like, or if he'll want to buy knowledge I won't want to sell," Maour cautioned. "But it's apparently standing policy that anyone who comes for a bounty is to be left alone while they're here, so it should be safe to go find out."</p><p>"Don't think I didn't notice how you didn't answer my question," Ruffnut grumbled as they flew below the height of the tallest mast in the armada. Up close, it was even more intimidating, its own little island floating with the wind, hulking metal monstrosities with gangplanks between them, and humans of all shapes, colors, and sizes patrolling in armor like that which the dragons were wearing… It gave her the impression of a beehive, or maybe an ant colony, where there was some activity visible from above, but most had to be going on below.</p><p>Von landed on the deck of the ship, still clutching the tarp in her back paws. Four men with long pikes and two with crossbows were immediately looking their direction, but it seemed the white flag and maybe being spotted flying with the guard patrol was enough to make them wary, not openly hostile.</p><p>"Here to speak to Drago about a bounty or five," Maour said briskly. "I'm told there's a cease-fire arrangement here while we wait to be seen?"</p><p>"Aye," one of the men with pikes said, handing his unwieldy weapon to another and gesturing for them to approach. "No fighting, no letting your followers fight, no theft, none of that. From you, or from the others waiting. I'll be taking word of your arrival to Drago in a moment, but I'll show you to your cabin for now."</p><p>"Make it swanky," Ruffnut demanded.</p><p>"All the cabins are the same, so that none of those who come can complain of special treatment for others," the guard recited, leading them to a flight of stairs covered by a trapdoor. There were a few men hanging around near the rails of the ship, a few with decidedly unnerving looks to them. Von had never seen so much hair on a human before, or so <em>little</em>, and neither of those two were looking at her kindly.</p><p>Then they were below, and she replaced her unease with the humans with an unease with enclosed spaces. The guard led them past two dozen torches, deep into the bowels of the ship, and to a chunk of wood he promptly swung open, revealing a small wooden cave. "Your room, until Drago has time to meet with you."</p><p>"How long are we looking at waiting, here?" Ruffnut asked. "Two days? Two months?"</p><p>"It varies, but I think you will be bumped to the front of the line, so expect your leader to have an audience with him tonight," the guard said. He gave Von a look. She stared right back at him until he blinked and looked away. "I'll go give him the news now. Wait here."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>The visitor ship was a place of tension, and Maour hated the thought of leaving Von alone there for an instant, locked cabin door protecting her or not. Half of the foreigners he had seen looked at her like she was a demon in their midst, and the other half was somehow worse, staring at her like they were seeing a big payday in their immediate future. If it weren't for Drago's guards, he'd have expected at least one attempt to capture her already, and he'd only seen a dozen men in the short walk between landing on the deck and the stairs down.</p><p>'I <em>should</em> be fine,' Von rumbled reassuringly. She had immediately claimed the only patch of floor big enough for her to curl up in, and made up a scale and saddle heap next to the narrow single bed. 'They seem serious about not attacking me here.'</p><p>"And they didn't try to put you in a cage, so that's a start," Ruffnut agreed. She had immediately claimed the bed itself as her territory, much like Von except more actively, tossing off her boots and splaying out on the lumpy surface. "We'll stay here, you go have your audience with the big guy. If you're not back by dawn, we'll rescue you."</p><p>"Or, hear me out," he retorted, "you two could fly off and wait in the air, not below deck in a ship filled with people who might try something the moment they work up the nerve."</p><p>'I spent all day and part of tonight flying, running, and then flying again,' Von said apologetically. 'And we do not know of anywhere safe to rest, with the Skrill possibly still out there and these guard dragons here. Would it be any safer to sleep on a sea stack? Because I will have to sleep somewhere. At least here if a fight starts there will be people on both sides, not just me against whoever finds me.'</p><p>Maour shook his head mutely; he didn't have a rejoinder for any of that. He just didn't like it.</p><p>'We will be fine,' Von assured him. 'Though I do think we should make a link, so we know if something goes wrong on your end.' That the link would also let him keep an eye on her situation went unsaid, though he definitely appreciated it. 'Just until we get Kappi back.'</p><p>"Hang on, I want a link if you're handing one out," Ruffnut objected.</p><p>'I would not give one to you, and that is entirely your fault,' Von said primly. 'So, Maour?'</p><p>"For now," he agreed, crouching by her head and extending a hand. The resulting headache was just as bad as he remembered it being, but at least it passed quickly.</p><p>'I am glad we practiced with those mice all that time ago,' Von rumbled as they recovered. She accessed his hearing enough to communicate with him over any distance, but nothing else. 'Otherwise, I would have had to practice on Ruffnut and then knock her out again.'</p><p>"Thorstons are not expendable," Ruffnut huffed. "And you know, now you have Maour keeping an eye on you, I don't <em>have </em>to stick around."</p><p>'Another reason for you to be glad I am staying here not going flying,' Von told Maour as he stood. 'With me here, you do not have to worry about Ruffnut sneaking off to explore and getting into trouble that will inevitably come to Drago's attention at exactly the wrong time.'</p><p>"Hey!" Ruffnut objected. "I'd get into trouble that causes the distraction he needs at exactly the right time, and you know it."</p><p>Maour looked between the two of them. "I wasn't going to worry about that," he said dryly, "but now I might. Thank you so much for that."</p><p>'I'll sit in front of the door,' Von purred. 'She's not getting out.'</p><p>"I'll find a way around you," Ruffnut proclaimed, standing on the bed and pointing dramatically. "For too long I have been stuck on your back, taken wherever you wish, subject to your tyrannical whims. In the name of all that is–"</p><p>There was a knock on the door, and Ruffnut paused. "That is… To be continued." She dropped down to sit on the bed, her legs dangling off the side. "Well? Get the door."</p><p>Maour went to the door and undid the sturdy latch. He opened the door a crack to see who it was, but it was just the same guard from before, so he let the door open the rest of the way.</p><p>"Drago will see you immediately," the man explained. "As I said, anyone with such valuable skills coming to speak with him is considered a high priority. If you would follow me."</p><p>"My companions will be here, unharmed, when I return?" Maour asked.</p><p>"Drago's word on it, and his word is as solid as steel," the man said easily, without missing a beat. "Though it would be best if your companions remained in their cabin, so as to not… provoke… the others on this ship."</p><p>"Provocation is such an ugly word for such a fun activity," Ruffnut mused loudly from within the room.</p><p>Hardly an instant after Maour closed the door and started walking away, a loud thump could be heard from within the room, followed by Ruffnut's muffled voice. "Alright, credit where due, you're faster than I thought. But you forgot the window–"</p><p>Another loud thump resounded from the room.</p><p>"Ow, your tail is bony! Hey, get your fat butt off of my mmm mmmf mmmm!"</p><p>"Yeah," Maour said as he walked away, studiously ignoring the noises, "they're staying inside. I'm not sure which would be in more danger if they left."</p><p>"The wrath of Drago would come down on anyone who came seeking his approval only to slay potential allies," the guard said gravely as he led Maour back up onto the deck. "That is something to be feared, no matter who you are. Their hands are firmly tied, whether they like it or not. Most do not even have a way off the armada should they wish to leave, not until we put in at another island.'</p><p>A pair of fairly typical Vikings, one missing an eye and one missing his entire nose, glared at Maour and his guard as they waited for a gangplank to be lowered from the next ship over, a metal thing with railings and circular holes in the deck at regular intervals that had him intensely curious.</p><p>"Ask if you have any questions," the guard remarked as the gangplank thumped down to the deck, "but I may be unable to answer directly until you sign on with the armada in some fashion. A lot of what we have here is the product of years of work with those like yourself, except with knowledge pertaining to making things, not dragons. You will see things here that do not exist anywhere else, and we are not in the business of explaining what is dearly paid for."</p><p>"Trade secrets, got it," Maour confirmed. "I'll keep my curiosity to myself." He wasn't here for the innovation, as much as he would have been all over it under other circumstances. He was here to get Toothless back, however indirectly. If that meant working with this warlord who was looking more and more interesting with every revelation, then that was what he needed to do. Not geeking out over advanced crossbows, ships made of <em>metal </em>that seemed entirely as capable as their more vulnerable wooden counterparts, and who knew what else.</p><p>"We're here," the guard announced, stopping in front of a squat metal structure built into the deck of one of the ships. He had expected a much longer walk, to one of the absolutely massive ships that made up the middle of the armada.</p><p>"And…" Maour prompted.</p><p>"Go in," the guard instructed, pointing to the metal door built into the side of the metal cube. "Talk to Drago. That's it, there's nothing else to know."</p><p>"Right." Just talk to Drago. That was all. He didn't know why he felt so nervous… Except maybe because this was massively important and could go very, very bad very quickly. Also, he had no idea what to expect, and he hadn't bothered to ask the guard any of a number of useful questions. He turned back to the guard–</p><p>The door slammed open behind him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>O-O-O</p><p>Drago was not a man who could blend into a crowd at will. His face was hard and pocked with scars akin to those of a blacksmith's hands, little specks where sparks burned hot enough to leave marks, and his nose was a crooked hook that had clearly been broken several times. Long, coarse hair, black with streaks of grey, framed his weathered old face, shadowing it even in direct torchlight. Even though he always stooped, he still stood a head above most men, with a heavy woolen cloak draped across his form. The wicked bullhook gripped in one hand might have occasionally doubled as a walking staff considering how old he seemed to be, but it was clearly still a deadly weapon.</p><p>Even hidden in the shadows, Drago's eyes were piercing, and Maour had a hard time believing his advanced age would be a detriment if it came to a fight. Most Vikings didn't live long enough to be showing that much grey, and while a Viking might have attributed it to cowardice, the massive fleet Drago commanded said otherwise.</p><p>All of which Maour noticed in the moment, as he turned around to see the man himself standing in the doorway of the squat little metal cabin.</p><p>"Come." Drago's voice was as grating as his appearance, and brooked no argument. Maour tentatively followed him into the little metal hut, which held nothing more than an old wooden chair and a throne made of black stone. Drago took the throne, of course.</p><p>Maour made the conscious decision to <em>not </em>shut the door behind him as he entered, and he ran his hand across the chair before sitting down. He wasn't going to fall for a weirdly-timed ambush.</p><p>"You wear the scales of Night Furies," Drago said brusquely. "You bring one here. To my fleet. You are either very confident, or very foolish."</p><p>"One of those," Maour said vaguely. "I was told you offer bounties for useful knowledge."</p><p>"I do not wish to buy the secrets to controlling Night Furies, because there is no secret," Drago rumbled. "Yours will turn on you when you least expect it. They cannot be controlled."</p><p>"I wouldn't argue with any of that," Maour agreed. He didn't know what else to do with such a correct and yet incorrect statement. Drago was wrong <em>and </em>right for the wrong reasons.</p><p>'Is it strange that I like this human more because he believes us indomitable?' Von asked. 'It makes me feel slightly safer, knowing he does not want to try and capture me for himself.'</p><p>"So long as you know and can put it down when it betrays you," Drago said gravely. "It is your folly. Your mistake. A useful one, for the time being, but still a mistake."</p><p>"Let's just say I'm fully aware of what will come of what I have done, and ready to handle any consequences, and leave it at that," Maour offered.</p><p>"Are you?" Drago challenged, his hard grey eyes glinting in the torchlight as he leaned forward from his throne, looking down at Maour. "They are wild things, the most wild of them all. They are brutally clever, enough to feign submission and then destroy everything when the mood strikes. Only a very foolish or naive man tries to chain the lightning to his will. "</p><p>'Okay, I like him less now,' Von muttered in the back of Maour's head.</p><p>"Be that as it may," Maour ventured, "I am not here solely to sell knowledge you do not want anyway." Not that he had any to sell, but if Drago didn't want it there was no harm in pretending he did. "The ice nest. The Skrill who live there have taken something of mine, <em>someone </em>of mine, and I have reason to believe he still lives. I want him back."</p><p>"The Terrors that ravage these parts take no prisoners," Drago said gruffly. "Your missing person is almost certainly dead."</p><p>"Then I want to recover his body," Maour shot back, "and that means getting into the ice nest. I cannot do it on my own. You are the only one who is fighting them with any success."</p><p>"That," Drago said darkly, "is true. They ravage, they destroy, they widen their territory. An enigma flies with them, a creature of human shape and unknown means. The mind behind their attacks is clever, knowledgeable. I am the only one <em>capable </em>of repelling their advances."</p><p>Maour wasn't particularly surprised to hear about another dragon rider, or something like it, but only because he had already heard rumors that Drago believed it to be so. "So you have plans to attack their nest?" he asked hopefully.</p><p>"Soon," Drago confirmed. "My fleet reaches its peak strength, my bounties reap the talent of the area. We will harry them for a few weeks more, then strike out for their nest. It is time. You would sail with us, if you had your way."</p><p>"I would," Maour agreed.</p><p>"And what would you give in repayment?" Drago demanded. "I want none of your foolish knowledge, and I take no worthless passengers. Your mistake is yours to deal with, and it may betray you at any time. Simply taking you along is already a risk for no reward."</p><p>Maour didn't immediately have an answer for that, though it seemed Drago wasn't expecting one anyway, given how he leaned back in his throne and waited.</p><p>'He wants something from us in exchange for letting us come along when he attacks the nest?' Von asked. 'What can we give? What would we be willing to give that he would want? Ruffnut is saying Skrill… What about Skrill?'</p><p>"Night Furies are the natural enemy of Skrill," Maour said, inspiration striking. "They will come for us the moment they know we are here. We cannot deal with two or more, but in the haze of a fight, we can dispatch one. I am sure that would be of use to you."</p><p>"If true, maybe," Drago growled. "It would be of some value. I would have you sail with my fleet from now on. You would do as I asked, work with my men and aid in repelling the Terrors when they come for the next few islands. I would have specific tasks for you and your folly, tasks you would need to at least attempt. Should you persevere and do as I ask until it is time for the attack, I will permit you to be there. You and your folly." Left unsaid was that if they did not come to a deal, Drago would <em>not </em>allow a Night Fury anywhere near his fleet, but Maour definitely got the message.</p><p>"You want us in your army until the attack," Maour summarized. "If I could be sure you would only give orders I would not object to, I would agree. What sort of thing would you require of us?"</p><p>'Why are you talking like him?' Von asked.</p><p>"It's contagious," Maour muttered, embarrassed despite the tense situation. There was something about the stilted, formal way Drago talked that made him feel like he would be insulting the man to not reply in the same manner, and Drago was <em>not </em>someone Maour wanted to insult.</p><p>"You would do nothing I do not have my other men do," Drago said, oblivious to the commentary only Maour could hear. "Fighting the Terrors when they come. Striking at specific targets within those attacks. The only things I would ask of you would be related to weakening the enemy, and preparing for the attack on the ice nest. You would also be able to say no and walk away at any time, though I would have my men shoot on sight if you came back for the assault on the nest."</p><p>"So long as you won't fire on us the moment I choose to go back on our deal," Maour said warily.</p><p>"I want no part in your beast going berserk," Drago said stiffly. "You will be allowed to leave, but never to come back."</p><p>'This sounds tolerable,' Von murmured. 'Ruffnut says go for it.'</p><p>"Then we have a deal," Maour agreed. He stood and offered his hand, to shake on it, but Drago looked at him as if he was holding out a dead fish.</p><p>"It is agreed," Drago intoned instead. "You will keep the room you were given in the visitor ship, and I will have a suitable cage attached to the deck."</p><p>"You can skip the cage," Maour said forcefully. "The room is enough."</p><p>Drago stared at him in silence for an awkwardly long time, but Maour stood there and let him stare. He didn't think justifying himself would end well; this was non-negotiable. Arguing about it would imply there <em>was </em>an argument to be had.</p><p>"Keep it from striking at my men or sinking my ships, and I don't care what you do with it," Drago agreed. "Now get out."</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>The rest of the night was spent in the cabin they had been given, trying to sleep. Von, for one, didn't get <em>any </em>sleep despite knowing that they were, at least in theory, now a part of the crew. Or the larger fleet, she didn't think she was going to be adjusting sails or swabbing decks anytime soon.</p><p>That didn't stop her from worrying about random men bursting into their room and throwing spears, or stabbing with swords. It might have been irrational, but her nerves didn't care about rationality.</p><p>Or maybe it was just the boat, rocking back and forth without end, that had her on edge. Or how they were stuck in a little wooden cave with a flickering torch, a fire hazard waiting to happen. Or all of that rolled into a tight ball of anxiety…</p><p>Whatever the reason, she elected to sit up all night on watch. Ruffnut and Maour managed to sleep, though she suspected it was hard for them, too. She watched the door, and occasionally experimented with Maour's senses.</p><p>It was odd, finally having a link with a human. She had never tried it before. On a mouse long ago, sure, but never on a human. Maour and Toothless never broke their link on purpose, so she couldn't have tried it out with him before now… Maybe if she had asked, but it hadn't seemed important.</p><p>Now, though... She wished they had Toothless back, more than anything, but until they could rescue him, this was interesting. Having a second set of senses was a great distraction. Everything was quieter and softer to Maour's senses. He could hear some things, but not everything. Some sounds were completely absent for him, where she heard them clearly. It was intriguing.</p><p>One sound she heard clearly through both sets of ears, on the other paw, was the creak as Ruffnut got up from the bed – which she had claimed by merit of marking it with her boots until Maour didn't want it anymore – and took a step toward the door.</p><p>Von cracked open an eye and shot her a withering look. 'Where do you think you are going?' she asked.</p><p>"Same place you'll be going once you get over your paranoia," Ruffnut whispered. "To find the outhouse!"</p><p>Von wasn't entirely sure she believed it, but she shifted her tail aside to let Ruffnut at the door anyway. There was no way to win this particular argument; either she let Ruffnut go, or she held Ruffnut in until she did something truly vile to prove her need was real. <em>That </em>was something Von would much rather avoid altogether.</p><p>Ruffnut closed the door behind herself. Not two heartbeats later, horns began to sound all over the fleet.</p><p>'Ruffnut!' Von barked angrily.</p><p>"I didn't even do anything!" Ruffnut yelled from the other side of the door.</p><p>An explosion echoed outside, audible even from where Von sat. Many pairs of feet thumped in the hallway outside their cabin, Ruffnut being presumably one of them.</p><p>"Wha… Where's Ruffnut?" Maour asked sleepily. Von felt vindicated that she wasn't the <em>only </em>one who had immediately leaped to their tag-along troublemaker being the cause of the commotion.</p><p>'Either going to relieve herself or joining the fight,' Von huffed. 'Whatever it is.'</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>"Just like old times," Ruffnut muttered to herself. She stood on the deck of their dinky little wooden ship, staring out at the reason the horns had begun blaring. It was still dark out, but the approaching dragon horde – they called it a Terror, but that just made her think of Terrible Terrors so it was clearly a stupid name – made up a black cloud against the backdrop of distant icebergs.</p><p>Maour and Von emerged from below deck, and she quietly slipped across one of the gangplanks, hidden by the crowd. She didn't feel like being told to stay out of the fighting, and they couldn't complain about her doing otherwise if they never delivered the message. It would be hypocritical of them anyway; <em>they </em>were going to fight.</p><p>The swirling swarm of dragons – Swarm, that would have been a better name – was drawing closer, and many of them were kindling fire in their maws, sparks of light in the dark. Ruffnut could see an impressive amount of ballistae and other, more exotic weaponry being brought to bear on the threat, so she would guess that the dragons stupid enough to give away their exact positions were about to get an unpleasant surprise.</p><p>Maour and Von might be bothered by that, ballistae bolts were almost certainly lethal, and it wasn't like any dragon hit would land on solid ground, but Ruffnut didn't really care. She <em>liked </em>dragons, but she also liked humans, and she would happily beat one of either group over the head if they were attacking her. This was a war, people on both sides were going to die, and from what she had seen, the humans were in the right, defending themselves.</p><p>It was a <em>lot </em>like back on Berk. There might even be a mountain-sized dragon behind it all. She hoped there was; she hadn't gotten to help kill the last one, and participating this time would give her something to rub in everyone's faces for the rest of her life.</p><p>The dragon swarm opened fire from above, far above. Some of the flames dispersed before getting anywhere close, but the more lava-like blasts from Gronckles hit hard, blasting some of the metal ships. Catapults and other devices returned fire, striking down a handful of dragons…</p><p>Ruffnut watched the opening volley, then made a beeline for the least impressive ship that was throwing things at the horde, a wooden thing moored on the outskirts of the fleet. The crew there was struggling to aim, and if there was one thing she knew, it was that desperate people didn't often reject a helping hand. Even if they really should have because that helping hand was actually a distraction… But this wasn't a time for pranks, so she was just going to help out.</p><p>She hopped the gap between the last metal ship and the wooden ship in question, landing with a dramatic roll that none of the sailors noticed. There were four of them, busily arguing over which way they were supposed to load the net-launcher they clearly had no idea how to work.</p><p>She didn't know which way it went either, but she had something to contribute nonetheless. "It doesn't matter how you put it in if you've cut it in half trying to stuff it in wrong already," she yelled, shoving a weedy guy aside to pull at the net and reveal where it had been cut by the sharp edges of unsmoothed metal that made up the net launcher. "Shoddy craftsmanship, right there." Maour's stuff was always smooth and dull on any edges that weren't <em>meant </em>to be a health hazard.</p><p>"Oh…" the big man holding the net said mournfully. He was painfully slow in pulling it away, but the other three at least were quick about picking up another one and trying to figure out how to load it <em>without </em>shoving it in. She had half expected them to make the same mistake a few more times before figuring it out, even with her telling them outright.</p><p>"You one of the big boss's people?" A fifth man came down from the mast, dropping onto the deck from above. A blast in the air out over the fleet lit him from behind.</p><p>Ruffnut took a moment out of her busy night to admire his rippling, roguish form, wind pushing through his vest and exposing his well-toned chest. More than a moment, maybe two or three. Only the arguing behind her spoiled the sight.</p><p>"Yes, and he sent me to deal with you lot," she lied shamelessly. "I'll be with you for at least a few days." If she had to fight alongside all of these foreigners, she wanted to fight with <em>this</em> one.</p><p>"Then show my crew how to use the net launcher before the attack ends!" the man, presumably the captain, said irritably.</p><p>"Of course, I was just waiting to see if they could figure it out themselves," she blustered, turning around. "You! Pick up one end. You! Fold it into a nice package, leave the weights on the outside. Then put it in so it will spin and unravel in the air. It's not that hard!" Or, it wasn't hard if that was how it actually worked. For all she knew, that wasn't it at all.</p><p><em>They </em>didn't know she was guessing. One held the partially unraveled net up, one awkwardly folded it, and the third held all the metal weights in his hands while they worked. They had to reach past each other a few times, and almost ended up tangling the third guy's hands in the net, but they managed to fold it into something vaguely like what she had demanded. Then it was stuffed into the launcher, weights first, and the mechanisms all clicked and whirred and it was pulled down into the thing.</p><p>Nothing immediately exploded, so Ruffnut assumed she hadn't guessed <em>entirely </em>incorrectly. "Now aim it <em>in front</em> of where the dragons will be," she instructed, bluffing frantically. "You <em>do </em>know how to aim, I assume."</p><p>The weedy one shoved at the burly guy until he moved, then took over aiming the contraption. "Aye, I'm a great shot," he said confidently. "What's the range?"</p><p>"Twice that of a normal net-launcher," she guessed. It looked bigger than the ones she had seen before, though she had only seen one or two up close… It was fancy and Von said Maour heard that Drago hired the smart guys who made fancier things, so she was sure it was better than a normal one.</p><p>"Hurry up," the hunky captain said. "Drago told me these attacks are fast, they fire on the fleet and then retreat before our side's dragons can be brought up, and there's already one up, they have to be about to leave."</p><p>"Can't get a clean shot," the weedy guy complained.</p><p>Ruffnut tore her eyes from the ship's captain for a moment and took in the changing face of the battle. She didn't have a great view from this crappy little wooden ship, but she could see the bulk of the dragons. The ones with heavy fire were still intermittently raining it on the larger ships, some of the faster dragons were darting in – not darting back out, though, not always – and a few big shapes were hanging back, waiting.</p><p>A Night Fury was also darting through the fray, high above the ships. Von wasn't using her fire, probably because she didn't want to kill anyone, but she was chasing something, one of the bigger dragons. Presumably, she and Maour were trying to find the one leading the charge, or whatever. Something smart and strategic.</p><p>Ruffnut would settle for her bluffing netting her a position of authority over the hunk of man she had run into, and for that, she needed the weedy guy to hit something. "Just fire, the longer you wait the less time we have to set up a second shot," she advised.</p><p>The weedy guy didn't respond, so she marched up to him and punched him in the shoulder. "Hey, I was talking to you!"</p><p>The net launcher fired right into the mass of dragons swarming above. Ruffnut watched as it flew, spinning weirdly and only half unraveling as intended, and disappeared into the dark, confusing mass. A moment later, a spindly dragon with large wings fell from the sky, tangled in a very similar net.</p><p>"Was that mine?" the weedy guy asked.</p><p>"Yes, it was, don't let anyone claim otherwise," Ruffnut said confidently.</p><p>"Bort, Saldam, go retrieve our catch!" the hunky captain ordered. "It landed on the ships, <em>go</em>!" The two big men whose names Ruffnut now knew hurried to toss ropes and haul themselves up the side of the metal ship.</p><p>"So," Ruffnut said smoothly, turning to the captain, "what do you plan to do with it?"</p><p>"I know the deal I made, don't you worry," the captain assured her. "It goes to Drago, like any dragon we catch. Thanks for the assist. You said you're here from Drago?"</p><p>"He wanted someone to help you learn a few ropes, but don't expect too much help," Ruffnut said, her hands on her hips. "He's a believer in learning by failing. And doing. But mostly failing. So I'm here to give the occasional order and watch you learn, nothing more." Hopefully, that would convince him that she wasn't giving better advice out of callous indifference, not ignorance.</p><p>The captain grimaced at that. "Can't say I like it, but if that's what we signed up for, then so be it. What's your name?"</p><p>"What's yours?" Ruffnut shot back. "He didn't tell me, just told me to go look after the new guys in the dinky little ship."</p><p>"My ship is fast and resilient," the captain retorted. "I am Eret, son of Eret, expert dragon trapper!"</p><p>The name Eret rang a bell… Or maybe that was the actual bell ringing somewhere in the fleet. "Eh, whatever," she said. "I'm Ruffnut."</p><p>The dragons above began to fly away, having accomplished little except harrying the fleet and maybe damaging a few ships. Ruffnut noticed Von following them, a few of the armored dragons of the fleet flying with her, but a concentrated attack from the retreating dragons drove even her back.</p><p>She and Maour were going to be in a bad mood, Ruffnut could already tell. She was in no hurry to catch up with them. "So, Eret," she said slyly, "Why don't you show me around your ship?'"</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless didn't know exactly what was happening, but he knew <em>something </em>was going on. A dragon, one of the many of the nest, had flown in in a tizzy and dropped down right onto the King's massive head, something <em>no </em>dragon did unless one counted the fledglings. Moments later, the King started waving his tusks around, and three of the Skrill were flying toward him, along with a good portion of the nest's inhabitants.</p><p>Toothless didn't hear anything, though he was listening closely. The King wasn't in the habit of blaring his orders to everyone at once, it seemed; he was certainly speaking to the dragons clustered around him, but he could not be heard from the prison.</p><p>'I take it this is not normal,' Toothless remarked to Grey. She was watching through his eyes, of course.</p><p>'No, not at all,' Grey said slowly. 'Even Star and Hefnd are interested.'</p><p>Toothless glanced to the side and saw what he had only barely noticed out of the corner of his eye prior to Grey bringing it up; both Furies were looking out at the nest. Usually, they ignored anything going on outside of where they themselves could go.</p><p>Three Skrill flew off, out of the nest. A short while later, many of the other kinds of dragons flew out, presumably off to do whatever it was the Skrill were doing. None of them came back for a long while, and when they did return it was mostly piecemeal, one or two dragons at a time. The nest stirred with restless energy, but nobody seemed all that worried… It was an intriguing puzzle.</p><p>But there was only so much watching a mostly happy society that Toothless could take, so he eventually turned away from the spectacle and began thinking about food. It wasn't that much happier a topic, given his rumination was on the <em>lack </em>of food, but it was slightly better.</p><p>They weren't being given enough fish. One small meal per day was barely enough to keep them alive. He could always feel some level of hunger now, and he doubted he would ever really get used to it. The longer he subsisted on what the Skrill gave out, the less capable he would be of doing anything physically demanding.</p><p>It was not a definite deadline, he would never become totally incapable of doing anything; Hefnd was an example of what long-term deprivation would do, and while it was horrible, it wasn't impossibly debilitating. The other male moved little and was far more growl than bite, but he was probably still capable of running and fighting in short bursts.</p><p>Still, it meant that the longer Toothless waited, the harder it would be to implement an escape plan. He couldn't linger forever, not when he had no idea what was going on with his siblings. They might not even know where he was, even now. Or they might have gotten the wrong idea and flown off somewhere totally different in search of him. As much as he would like to, he couldn't rely on them. He couldn't even coordinate with them.</p><p>His stomach rumbled forlornly, and he did his best to ignore it. Their daily meal was late. Whichever Skrill had been tasked with getting it – Tolerable was sitting on watch, so it wasn't him – they weren't being quick about it. If it was a Skrill at all; for all he knew, some random luckless Nadder was stuck fishing for them every day, and the Skrill just picked up the results.</p><p>A Skrill entered the ice nest from the hole in the top, clutching grey things in its massive talons, leaving the question unanswered. He flew directly to the prison and circled Tolerable on his perch.</p><p>'This one was sneaky, we still have not found it,' Sadistic snarled loudly enough that Toothless could hear him. 'Half the nest is looking, and half of <em>those </em>are only doing the bare minimum. We'll never catch it unless it's stupid enough to come back for another shot.'</p><p>'You watch them, I will check all the ice closest to us,' Tolerable grumbled, shaking out his wings. Little bolts of lightning leapt from him to Sadistic as the other Skrill closed in on a second pass. 'Maybe it is being clever and hiding where it thinks we will not look.'</p><p>'It was carrying <em>two </em>humans, it cannot be clever,' Sadistic huffed. Tolerable left the perch with a heavy flap, and he immediately claimed it for himself, crushing the fish against the ice as he landed. Toothless hoped none of the fish had been too badly pulped by the impact; that was their food he was damaging, and he definitely wouldn't listen if someone complained.</p><p>Then 'carrying two humans' came back to the front of his mind, and he resisted the urge to knock his head against a wall for caring more about <em>fish </em>than that piece of news. Von, Maour, and Ruffnut, it had to be. They were here, but they were hiding and being hunted by half the nest… And there was nothing he could do about it. Worse still, he hadn't finished planning an escape yet; he had barely even started!</p><p>'I hope they get away,' Grey murmured.</p><p>'They had better,' he agreed, mindful of the need to pretend, at least outwardly, that he had no idea who that was. The Skrill knew about Von now, but if they knew he knew her, they might start asking questions he couldn't safely answer.</p><p>Sadistic leaped down from his perch, landing on the bare stone and dirt of their enclosure with a heavy thud. He hadn't even tried to slow his fall. Toothless heard a frustrated sigh from one of the other Furies as he gave them an evil look and flicked his talons to spray smashed bits of fish in their general direction.</p><p>'Oh, look at that,' he growled, scraping his talons clean of the nearly inedible mess he had made of all their food. Fish guts and scales smeared through the dirt. He made eye contact with Hefnd, who looked away, and then Star, who stared back for a moment before shaking her head. 'Usurpers have bad luck today. Too bad for all of you.'</p><p>It was a casual sort of cruelty, and his very name suggested Toothless would be wise not to push the issue, but when Sadistic turned to stare challengingly at <em>him</em>, he glared right back. 'We still need to eat,' he said.</p><p>'Then eat,' Sadistic retorted, gesturing to the smeared mess he had made of a dozen fish. Maybe less than a dozen; it looked like he had left one or two up on the icy perch. 'It's still there.'</p><p>He flew up to his perch and settled down there, watching them with an evil eye and a constant crackle of lightning playing out over his body.</p><p>Toothless ventured over to the mess and poked at a bit of it with his claw. Sadistic had touched down <em>hard</em>, the fish was thoroughly flattened. From the scales and flesh, to the bones, it was all broken and smeared into the dirt. He tried flipping the mess over, but that just revealed a patch of the underside, where the dirt was visibly ground in.</p><p>It was still food, but not the sort of food he wanted to eat. He didn't have much of a <em>choice</em>, though.</p><p>'Divide it equally,' Hefnd huffed from behind him. 'We are not giving you our portions just because it looks bad.'</p><p>'I didn't expect you to.' He withheld a mean-spirited remark about how skinny the other male was; he would be in the same situation sooner or later.</p><p>Grey crept up beside him just as he finished dividing the dirty remnants into sad little piles. She didn't make any of her usual jokes, and instead of eating out in the open, she took her fish back to her caves. There was a generally depressed atmosphere hanging over them all like a fog, and Toothless knew why. Not only had they had their food ruined, it was possible that another Fury would be joining them soon. Even Star seemed bothered by that idea, though she showed few signs of her unease.</p><p>'Want to talk about something?' Grey asked from her little hideaway.</p><p>'Sure.' He gritted his teeth, quickly swallowed his fish, ignored the itching in the back of his throat from the dirt, and retook his place in front of the ice wall. 'What?'</p><p>'I don't know…' Grey admitted.</p><p>Toothless didn't much feel like starting a conversation, but it was better than waiting for his sister to be dragged in with broken wings. Anything was better than dreading <em>that</em> for the rest of the day.</p><p>Above, Sadistic's baleful gaze watched over them all.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>Toothless would never claim he had gotten used to sleeping in an icy pit, but he was learning how to tolerate it. That meant napping and waking every so often to use more of his fire, but it was better than shivering all night and getting no sleep. But on this particular night, sleep might have been hard to come by regardless of where he was sleeping. Von hadn't been caught, but the search hadn't been called off, either. That was definitely something to worry about, and he wasn't having much luck drifting off.</p><p>As such, it was mostly a general sense of unease that had him awake to notice something odd. A Skrill was pacing around the top of their cells, which was normal. Said Skrill flying up before dipping into one of the cells and extracting a Night Fury, on the other paw, was not. It was Star who was taken. He couldn't see which direction the Skrill flew off in, and he had no idea where they were going… But it didn't seem like anything good could possibly be happening.</p><p>He considered trying to wake Grey, but she was on the other side of several thick walls of ice, and the link wouldn't help. Anything he did loud enough to wake her would also alert any Skrill lurking around. It would be stupid to assume the one that had taken Star was the only one on watch.</p><p>Star was not returned for what felt like a very long time, though he had trouble knowing for certain. Not the entire night, but a good portion of it. He couldn't see her well enough to see if anything was different about her. When she was put back, she flamed the ground, curled up, and seemingly went back to sleep.</p><p>At around the same time, there was a stirring out in the nest, a frenzied collection of wingbeats, roars, and other noises that lasted for a while before fading away. Toothless felt his chest seize up with pure dread, but nothing came of it. No new Night Fury was dropped into a pit near him.</p><p>Either Von had not been caught, or she had been caught and killed in defiance of what he had come to understand was simply the King's desire to assert dominance over those he saw as threats. A desire enforced on the Skrill…</p><p>It was a small, mostly useless revelation, but a revelation nonetheless. The King could give orders. Skrill always attacked and killed Night Furies. The King wanted to make himself feel powerful, and that, to him, meant keeping his enemies captive. So he had given an unbreakable order, to capture and not kill. Maybe even to not <em>risk </em>killing. They <em>wanted</em> to kill, but they couldn't.</p><p>He could maybe exploit that… Einfari or Heather would have come up with a way to use it in an instant. It would probably take him a lot longer… He had nothing but free time.</p><p>O-O-O</p><p>'Oh, that?' Grey hummed thoughtfully as she wormed her way into her usual spot. For some reason, she was very reluctant to sit out in the open, even when Toothless suggested she could sit with him, for warmth. He didn't want to press the issue, even though he knew she was cold enough in there that she preferred feeling his body instead of her own.</p><p>'It happens often?' Toothless murmured, discreetly looking at Star as she dunked her head in the pond. Her body was still almost entirely unmarked, and he didn't see any open wounds. She still looked to be the least worn of all of them. Even her wings looked better than the rest, only slightly crooked. None of that had changed.</p><p>'Every so often, yes,' Grey confirmed. 'Sadistic is the one to take her. I do not know, and she does not answer if asked, but I think she has made some sort of deal with him. No scars, in exchange for being hurt in other ways.'</p><p>'That's horrible.' Star looked his way, so he looked away before she noticed his staring. He didn't even want to <em>think </em>about what shape that sort of deal might take–</p><p>'At least she has her morals and sticks to them,' Grey pointed out. 'Hide before health. Or maybe "scales are better than scars." Something like that.'</p><p>'Let's talk about something else,' Toothless huffed. He wasn't sure he minded Grey making jokes at Star's expense, not after her doing exactly the same to Grey in a much more humiliating way, but it still made him uncomfortable. He might not <em>like </em>Star, but she was a victim, just like the rest of the Night Furies here. Sniping back and forth and putting each other down was just making it that much harder to do anything worthwhile in this place. They really should all support and help each other, but that just wasn't happening.</p><p>'A common enemy does not count if nobody feels like they can do anything about it,' he said to himself. It felt right. Well, it felt <em>correct</em>, not right. He certainly didn't approve.</p><p>'Here's another one,' Grey offered. 'No news is good news.' Right? Because everyone is back, and Sadistic has not come to rub it in our faces that they caught another one of us to stick in here, or that they killed one. That means they failed, right?'</p><p>'For now, yes,' he agreed. He could see the human scuttering around on all fours, wrapping limbs and poking at wings under the watchful eye of its four-winged… owner. Companion. However that worked here. Either his siblings – and Ruffnut – had put up a fight, or the searching dragons had run into someone else who had. Either was good, he supposed.</p><p>'Not like they would come back,' Grey said, a touch bitterly. 'They can just fly away.'</p><p>'We can't count on them to get us out,' he agreed. Von, Maour and Ruffnut were horribly outmatched. They wouldn't just fly in, even though he now knew for sure that they knew where he was being held. They would lurk around, trying to figure out a sneaky way in. Maour would be building him another tailfin, maybe procuring a ship to try and brave the ice field in… If it was passable on ship. He had only briefly seen it from above, he didn't know.</p><p>They were out there. He just had to get himself and Grey out of the nest, across the ice fields, and in the air, somehow. Or, if he was lucky, they could scrap that last, hardest part and just do the first two. Maour might find them if they got all the way to the edge and waited there. Or they might die in any number of ways. Starvation, dehydration, injury, freezing to death. All while hiding from the Skrill.</p><p>It was a difficult set of tasks to tackle, but he had to at least start making plans. He knew how many Skrill there were, vaguely how they spent their time, who they reported to, and what restrictions they were working under. He also knew his siblings were in the area, and he could count on Maour to think of some way to get close. He had to do his part.</p><p>Maour could get them away without needing to fix Grey's wings, he didn't know about Grey but he would be planning for the possibility that Toothless would be coming out with Einn. So all Toothless had to do was get Grey to him. Get out of the ice nest and look for him.</p><p>It was all starting to come together… somewhat. He didn't think he would be spending much longer in this wretched place.</p><p>
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    <strong>Author's Note</strong>
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  <strong>: We'll be skipping one cycle of posting; this is the busiest time of the year for a college student (me), and I'm going into the final stage of finishing rewriting my other currently-running story, thus running myself a bit ragged. So, tune in on April 15th for this story to continue!</strong>
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  <b>UPDATE: Well, that was optimistic. The advent of end-of semester 12+ hour college days has come to smash my aspirations into the dirt. Let's say that this story will update again <em>before </em>May 20th; hopefully much before, but I make no promises. I quite literally don't have the time to write right now, or, at least I don't have time to write much that's not related to lignin, the delamination of composites, fish scales, or three-point bending tests.</b>
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